PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE:

Transcription

1 U. S. C O M M I S S I O N O N C I V I L R I G H T S PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE: RECONCILING NONDISCR IMINATION PR INCIPLES WITH CIVIL LIBER TIES BR I E F I N G R E P O R T SEPTEMBER 2016 U.S. C O M M IS S IO N O N CIVIL RIG HT S Washington, DC Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300 Visit us on the Web:

2 U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress in It is directed to: Investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices. Study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. Appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION Martin R. Castro, Chairman Patricia Timmons-Goodson, Vice Chair Roberta Achtenberg Gail L. Heriot Peter N. Kirsanow David Kladney Karen K. Narasaki Michael Yaki Mauro A. Morales, Staff Director U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 1331 Pennsylvania Ave NW Suite 1150 Washington, DC (202) Serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. Submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress. Issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws. This report is available on CD/DVD in ASCII Text, Adobe PDF, and Microsoft Word To obtain, please call (202) You may download this report from

3 Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties A Briefing Before The United States Commission on Civil Rights Held in Washington, DC Briefing Report

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5 UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS 1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 1150 Washington, DC Letter of Transmittal President Barack Obama Vice President Joe Biden Speaker of the House Paul Ryan The United States Commission on Civil Rights ( the Commission ) is pleased to transmit our briefing report, Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties. The report is also available in full on the Commission s website at The report examined the balance struck by federal courts, foremost among them the U.S. Supreme Court, in adjudicating claims for religious exemptions from otherwise applicable nondiscrimination law. The Commission heard testimony from experts and scholars in the field and a majority of the Commission made findings and recommendations. Some of those findings were that: 1. Civil rights protections ensuring nondiscrimination, as embodied in the Constitution, laws, and policies, are of preeminent importance in American jurisprudence. 2. Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights. 3. The First Amendment s Establishment Clause constricts the ability of government actors to curtail private citizens rights to the protections of non-discrimination laws and policies. Although the First Amendment s Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) limit the ability of government actors to impede individuals from practicing their religious beliefs, religious exemptions from nondiscrimination laws and policies must be weighed carefully and defined narrowly on a fact-specific basis. 4. With regard to federal government actions, RFRA protects only First Amendment free exercise rights of religious practitioners and not their Establishment Clause freedoms. Prior to RFRA s enactment, the U.S. Supreme Court had held in Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), that the First Amendment had never been held to excuse [an individual s religiously motivated conduct] from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate. This holding strengthened nondiscrimination laws and policies against actors who asserted religious justification for civil rights discrimination. RFRA now supersedes Smith as a controlling source of

6 federal authority. Some states have enacted statutes modeled after RFRA which impact state-level nondiscrimination civil liberties and civil rights protections. Recommendations included: 1. Overly-broad religious exemptions unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires. 2. RFRA protects only religious practitioners First Amendment free exercise rights, and it does not limit others freedom from government-imposed religious limitations under the Establishment Clause. 3. In the absence of controlling authority to the contrary such as a state-level, RFRA-type statute, the recognition of religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws and policies should be made pursuant to the holdings of Employment Division v. Smith, which protect religious beliefs rather than conduct. 4. Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination. 5. States with RFRA-style laws should amend those statutes to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions. States with laws modeled after RFRA must guarantee that those statutes do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights with status-based discrimination. The Commission is pleased to transmit its views in order to help ensure to all Americans both protection against discrimination and the constitutional guarantee of civil liberties. For the Commission, Martin R. Castro Chairman

7 Table of Contents i Table of Contents Acknowledgment... iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...1 DISCUSSION...5 Viewpoint Discrimination... 9 Viewpoint Neutrality... 9 Ministerial Exemption Religious Accommodation in Employment under Title VII Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act Pros and Cons As Seen By Legal Scholars Pro-Religious Exemption Against Religious Exemption Public Comments FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...25 Findings Recommendations COMMISSIONERS STATEMENTS AND REBUTTALS...29 Chairman Martin R. Castro Statement Commissioners Achtenberg, Castro, Kladney, and Yaki Statement Commissioner Karen K. Narasaki Statement Commissioner Peter Kirsanow Statement Commissioner Gail Heriot Statement and Rebuttal Commissioners Achtenberg, Castro, Kladney, Narasaki, and Yaki Rebuttal Commissioner Peter Kirsanow Rebuttal PANELISTS WRITTEN STATEMENTS Alan Brownstein Kimberlee Wood Colby Marc O. DeGirolami Leslie C. Griffin Marci A. Hamilton Michael A. Helfand John D. Inazu

8 ii Peaceful Coexistence Report Ayesha N. Khan Daniel Mach Edward Whelan Lori H. Windham PANELISTS BIOGRAPHIES Alan Brownstein Kimberlee Wood Colby Marc O. DeGirolami Leslie C. Griffin Marci A. Hamilton Michael Helfand John D. Inazu Ayesha N. Khan Daniel Mach Edward Whelan Lori H. Windham

9 Acknowledgment iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights acknowledges Lenore Ostrowsky of the Office of the General Counsel for researching and writing this report. The Commission also acknowledges Professor Roderick Hills of New York University Law School, a member of the Commission s New York State Advisory Committee, for his helpful editorial review of the draft.

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11 Executive Summary 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The United States Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing on March 22, 2013, to hear the views of scholars and legal advocates on the scope of constitutional and statutory guarantees of free exercise of religion. The Commission sought to learn how best to reconcile the conflict which in certain cases may exist between those seeking to practice religious faith and those seeking compliance with or protection of nondiscrimination laws and policies. The main focus of the Commission s briefing was the uncertain boundaries of religious freedom under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment and under some federal statutes, although judicial decisions have clarified the boundaries in some areas. The appropriate balance between religious liberty and nondiscrimination principles in some conflicts arises as a concern when religious institutions and organizations claim the freedom under constitutional and statutory law to choose leaders, members or employees according to the tenets of their faith, even if the choice would violate employment, disability, or other laws. It arises also when individuals claim the freedom to adhere to religious principles regardless of otherwise applicable law governing their conduct. 1 This freedom is grounded in the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution, 2 federal statutes such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 3 (RFRA), the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act 4 (RLUIPA), and common law. Other than statutory exemptions in federal and state RFRAs or other laws, several First Amendment doctrines govern such claims. One such doctrine is the ministerial exemption, a long-recognized doctrine 5 that allows religious organizations to determine their own teachings and rituals and to decide for themselves who will and will not serve as ministerial employees. 1 Notable cases involved military service. See Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 App. U.S.C. Section 456(g)(1) (establishing ministerial exemption from military service); see also U.S. v. Brown, 338 F.Supp. 409 (N.D. Ill., 1972) (mere congregation member not due selective service ministerial exemption); Dickinson v. United States, 346 U.S. 389 (1953) (registrant working largely but not entirely as minister was entitled to ministerial exemption under Universal Military Training and Service Act); Gillette v. U.S., 401 U.S. 437 (1971) (conscientious objector provision requiring opposition to all wars based on religious belief not unconstitutional); see also Memorandum for Secretaries of the Military Departments Chiefs of the Military Services from Clifford L. Stanley (September 30, 2011), available at (military chaplains permitted but not required to perform ceremonies that are at variance with the tenets of their religion or beliefs). 2 U.S. CONST. amend. I, cl U.S.C. 2000bb et seq., Pub.L (2012) U.S.C. 2000cc et seq., Pub.L (2012). 5 See Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694, 704 (2012) (discussing history of religious and ministerial exceptions; held, that employment discrimination law does not apply to dismissed church school employee engaged in religious instruction).

12 2 Peaceful Coexistence Report Another doctrine is the freedom of association, or expressive association, under which certain organizations both nonreligious and religious enjoy a First Amendment right to choose their leaders, associates, members and messages. 6 Assertions of such freedom are judicially reviewable, however, meaning that they do not operate as a bar to suit. 7 The third major analytical framework that may apply is a public-forum or limited-public-forum free speech enquiry. This analysis examines the government s power under state or federal law to control or condition speech or expressive conduct in certain public spaces, such as sidewalks, streets, parks, or college campuses or programs. 8 The Supreme Court majority relied upon this speech doctrine in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (Martinez) 9 in affirming the University of California Hastings law school s imposition of an all-comers policy compelling student groups seeking school recognition - and resources - to accept any voting member or leader regardless of views. This was the Supreme Court s most important recent decision regarding the limited-public-forum doctrine The decisions in the area of associational freedom have been uneven. Compare Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000) (Boy Scouts of America had an associational right to bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders as inconsistent with the values it seeks to instill), with Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 618, 620, 621 (1984) (striking down Jaycees refusal to allow admission of women: The Court has long recognized that, because the Bill of Rights is designed to secure individual liberty, it must afford the formation and preservation of certain kinds of highly personal relationships a substantial measure of sanctuary from unjustified interference by the State... Factors that may be relevant include size, purpose, policies, selectivity, congeniality, and other characteristics that in a particular case may be pertinent... The local chapters of the Jaycees are large and basically unselective groups. ); see also John D. Inazu, The Unsettling Well-Settled Law of Freedom of Association, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 149 (2010) and Richard Epstein, Public Accommodations Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Why Freedom of Association Counts as a Human Right, 66 Stan. L. Rev. 1241, 1266 (2014). 7 See, for example, Bob Jones University v. U.S., 461 U.S. 574 (1983) (held, the government has a compelling interest in eradicating racial discrimination at private colleges; this interest outweighs the burden of loss of tax-exempt status for such colleges); see also Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996) (held, that State constitutional amendment precluding government protection of homosexual orientation violated Equal Protection Clause). 8 In recognition of the government s power to preserve the property under its control for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated, the Court has permitted governmental restrictions on access to a limited public forum with the key caveat that any access restriction must be reasonable and viewpoint neutral. Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense & Ed. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 800, 806 (1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). 9 Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010). 10 But see Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981) (once university establishes an open public forum it must accord First Amendment speech rights) and Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972) (university may not deny recognition based on disapproval of group s purpose or philosophy).

13 Executive Summary 3 The application of a limited-public-forum analysis in Martinez was controversial. The Court upheld the law school s denial of recognition and the related provision of resources 11 to the Christian Legal Society (CLS or Society), a faith-based student organization, because the Society violated this all-comers policy by excluding as leaders and associates those who declined to affirm and adhere to the group s religious beliefs. 12 Scholars and legal advocates who agree with the Martinez Court s application of the limited public forum doctrine understand that the all comers policy does not violate the First Amendment. 13 In addition, some scholars argue that any exception to nondiscrimination laws is an unwarranted expansion of a freedom that illegitimately penalizes those whom society has determined to protect as most vulnerable. 14 They posit that carving out exceptions from civil rights laws for religious groups elevates some rights over others and diminishes the equal standing of some in our society. 15 Scholars and legal advocates disagreeing with Martinez believe that religious speech or conduct in school public forums is entitled to as much protection under the Constitution as secular or other speech or conduct that expresses a group identity, including protection of the right to associate with like-minded others. 16 They also contend that all comers policies are not, in fact, neutral - that is, that they discriminate against certain mission-oriented associations and are not 11 In this context, recognition means that Hastings extended official recognition to a student group through its Registered Student Organization (RSO) program. Several benefits follow from this school-approved status. RSOs are eligible to seek financial assistance from the Law School, which subsidizes their events using funds from a mandatory student-activity fee imposed on all students. RSOs may also communicate with students by placing announcements in a weekly Office-of-Student-Services newsletter, advertising events on designated bulletin boards, send s using a Hastings address, and participate in an annual Student Organizations Fair designed to advance recruitment efforts. In addition, RSOs may apply for permission to use the Law School s facilities for meetings and office space. Hastings allows officially recognized groups to use its name and logo. Student groups that lack RSO status do not receive these privileges. Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. at Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010) (appropriate test under First Amendment for public university campus was viewpoint-neutral/limited-public-forum enquiry; Hastings all-comers policy deemed viewpoint neutral and enforceable against all student groups without exception for religion). 13 See Leslie C. Griffin, Statement, infra; Alan Brownstein, Statement, infra; Ayesha N. Khan, Statement, infra; Daniel Mach, Statement, infra. 14 See Marsha B. Freeman, What s Religion Got to Do With It? Virtually Nothing: Hosanna-Tabor and the Unbridled Power of the Ministerial Exemption, 16 U. Pa. J. L. & Soc. Change 133 (2013); see also Caroline Mala Corbin, Above the Law? The Constitutionality of the Ministerial Exemption from Antidiscrimination Law, 75 Fordham Law Review 1966 (2007); and Leslie C. Griffin, The Sins of Hosanna-Tabor, 88 Ind. L. J. 981 (2013). 15 See Marci Hamilton Statement, infra. (sincerity of beliefs should be examined). 16 See Michael Stokes Paulsen, Disaster: The Worst Religious Freedom Case in Fifty Years, 24 REGENT U. L. REV. 283 (2012); see also Chapin Cimino, Campus Citizenship and Associational Freedom: An Aristotelian Take on the Nondiscrimination Puzzle, 20 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 533 (2011). Some scholars argue that this should be viewed as the right of a people peaceably to assemble under the First Amendment to the Constitution. See also Inazu, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 149, 196 (2010) ( CLS wasn t arguing that association is nothing more than speech but that association is itself a form of expression - who it selects as its members and leaders communicates a message. ).

14 4 Peaceful Coexistence Report rationally related to the government s interests. 17 Eleven scholars and legal advocates presented the Commission with a wide range of views. The experts were Alan Brownstein of the University of California at Davis Law School, Kimberlee Colby of the Christian Legal Society, Marc DeGirolami of St. John s Law School, Leslie Griffin of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Law School, Marci Hamilton of Cardozo Law School, Michael Helfand of Pepperdine University Law School, Ayesha Khan of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Daniel Mach of the American Civil Liberties Union, Edward Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Lori Windham of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Invited expert John D. Inazu of the Washington University Law School (St. Louis) was unable to attend but submitted a written statement which appears in the Panelists Statements section, infra. 17 CLS s argument on remand that all comers policies are a pretext for discriminating against religious groups was ruled not preserved. CLS v. Wu, 626 F.3d 483, 486 (2010).

15 Discussion 5 DISCUSSION From the beginning of our nation s history, religious freedom has been fundamental to its Constitution and common law. But the law allowing religious exemptions from otherwise applicable laws has not followed an even course. From before the framing and ratification of the Constitution and continuing up to 1878, courts did recognize constitutionally based exemptions, but only in rare circumstances. 1 In 1878, however, the Supreme Court held that there was no right to a religious exemption from anti-polygamy laws 2 and other cases denying exemptions followed. 3 Thereafter, for nearly a century, religious adherents wishing protection for religiously motivated conduct or actions were entitled to claim religious exemptions chiefly under statutory or common law rather than the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, 4 and the Court distinguished between beliefs (almost always protected) and practices based on those beliefs (largely unprotected). 5 In 1963, however, the Warren Court adopted a constitutional standard regarding exemptions for religiously motivated conduct based chiefly on the Free Exercise Clause. This standard was not dependent on statutory or common law, and was more favorable to protecting religious exercise. 6 The case was Sherbert v. Verner, 7 and presented the question of whether the Free Exercise 1 See Michael W. McConnell, The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion, 103 HARV. L. REV (1990) (arguing that courts have insufficiently recognized that religious movements of the colonial period pushed for primacy of religious conscience over secular laws and that the framers chose free exercise of religion over rights of conscience to protect religiously motivated but not secular conscience-motivated conduct); see pp for a discussion of early exemption cases. For a contrary view see Philip A. Hamburger, A Constitutional Right of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective, 60 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 915 (1992) (arguing that the early understanding of the Free Exercise Clause did not provide a constitutional right of religious exemption from civil laws, and as a result, exemptions have been granted in only a few circumstances). 2 Reynolds v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145 (1878) (bigamy unlawful despite Mormon religious views). 3 See Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944) (child labor laws prevailed against minor who wanted to distribute religious tracts); Hamilton v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 293 U.S. 245 (1934) (public university's suspension of students refusing to serve in ROTC on religious grounds upheld); Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599 (1961) (Sunday closing laws upheld against Orthodox Jews observing Saturday Sabbath). 4 The relevant portion of the First Amendment to the Constitution states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. U.S. CONST. amend. I; see also Reynolds v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145 (1878) (Admitted Utah bigamist conforming to religious precepts ruled not exempt from criminal law prohibition on plural marriage, despite First Amendment). 5 See Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 at (1990) (discussing the history of Free Exercise precedents); see also Reynolds v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145 (1878) (upholding criminal law prohibiting polygamy; First Amendment not offended by criminal laws punishing conduct rather than beliefs). 6 See for a concise history of Free Exercise law up to the year (Accessed Nov. 4, 2014). 7 Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963).

16 6 Peaceful Coexistence Report Clause prohibited conditioning government unemployment benefits on an applicant s willingness to work on a Sabbath day, if working on a Sabbath day violated the applicant s religious faith. The Court ruled that such burdens on religious exercise - even when imposed by generally applicable laws - had to be justified as the least restrictive way of advancing a compelling government interest and by showing that the government had failed to satisfy this requirement. Sherbert was followed by Wisconsin v. Yoder, 8 which invalidated on First Amendment grounds the application of compulsory ninth- and tenth-grade school-attendance laws to the Amish whose religious faith dictated that young people stop formal schooling before then. Even so, those seeking religious conduct exemptions under the First Amendment s Free Exercise Clause rarely prevailed. 9 By contrast, the question of what constituted establishment of religion (state sponsored promotion or encouragement of a particular religion or religions, prohibited under the First Amendment) received more consistent judicial development. 10 Then in 1990 in Employment Division v. Smith (Smith), the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote returned to the 1878-era statutory and common law interpretation against judicially created religious exemptions. 11 The Court reasoned that the First Amendment had never been held to excuse [an individual s religiously motivated conduct] from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate. 12 Religious exemptions from valid laws could be permitted, the Smith Court ruled, but such accommodations were up to the legislature to allow. Of course, a law had to be neutral to avoid burdening Free Exercise rights Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) (holding that the long-established Amish religious order had not produced children who became a burden on society, nor had the state shown that the two years of additional schooling after eighth grade made the children more likely to succeed either within or outside the Amish order). 9 Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, (1990) (describing the Court s Free Exercise jurisprudence and listing successful and failed Free Exercise claims). 10 See Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972) (a university may not deny recognition to groups merely on account of disagreement with its viewpoint);widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981) (a school may not deny recognition to campus religious groups seeking recognition based on the Constitution s prohibition on establishment of religion); Cutter v. Wilson, 544 U.S. 709 (2005) (Section 3 of RLUIPA does not on its face exceed the limits of permissible government accommodation of religious practices in prison); Town of Greece v. Galloway, 134 S.Ct (2014) (prayer before opening of town board meetings did not have to be nonsectarian to comply with Establishment Clause and did not constitute compulsion to engage in religious observance). There are some inconsistencies in the way the Court has come out on the issue, see McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, 545 U.S. 844 (2005) (posting of Ten Commandments on courthouse walls violated Establishment Clause). 11 Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) (This involved the use of a controlled substance, peyote, prohibited by Oregon s criminal codes. The Court held that if the code was neutral, meaning not specifically directed at a religious practice and was otherwise valid, the First Amendment did not bar its application). 12 Id. at See Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1992) (City ordinance prohibiting animal sacrifice was not neutral, was intended to burden the church's religious practices, and therefore violated the church's Free Exercise rights).

17 Discussion 7 The Smith decision was very unpopular across the political spectrum. Congress reacted by enacting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 14 (RFRA) in 1993 in an effort to counter the effect of the ruling. RFRA passed by a unanimous vote in the House, and a huge bipartisan majority (97-3) in the Senate. It addressed only Free Exercise doctrine, not the Establishment doctrine. As passed, RFRA applied to both federal and state law, but following another Supreme Court decision striking down a large portion applicable to the states, 15 was held to apply only to federal law and the statute amended to so reflect. In the years following that decision, about half the states either passed their own RFRA statutes or interpreted their state constitutions to favor exemptions in certain circumstances. The federal RFRA reinstated the compelling interest test used in Sherbert and Yoder. It provides that those who object to being governed by a federal statute because it violates their faith, regardless of what faith it is, have a presumptive entitlement to exemption if the law substantially burdens the religious objector s practice or sincerely held beliefs. To overcome this claim, the government must show that forcing compliance is the least restrictive means of serving a compelling government interest. 16 This is the strictest standard of judicial review, and has the effect of placing the burden of proof on the government, forcing it to articulate publicly a rationale for denying the exemption. The term substantial burden on religious exercise can include a broad range of burdens, impositions, and hardships. It is not limited to requirements that a claimant act in a way that he or she believes is forbidden or sinful, or refrain from a practice that the claimant believes is commanded or obligatory. 17 The term least restrictive means that the government may use no more than the minimum directive or prohibition to achieve its purpose and less restrictive 14 Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No , 2, 107 Stat (1993) (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. 2000bb to bb-4 (2012). 15 City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997). After this decision, Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. 2000cc to cc-5 (2012) (RLUIPA) to protect religious assemblies from discriminatory land use regulations or zoning codes and to allow institutionalized persons increased rights to engage in conduct required of adherents to a religion. 16 See Holt v. Hobbs, 135 S.Ct. 853, 864 (2015) (state failed to show that denying request by Muslim prisoner to maintain one-half-inch-length beard was least restrictive way to maintain prison security). 17 Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006) (government s refusal to allow sect to import and use hallucinogenic plant in communion ritual constituted a substantial burden on religious exercise); U.S. v. Rutherford Cnty., Tenn., No. 3: , 2012 WL (M.D. Tenn. July 18, 2012) (county s refusal to grant mosque certificate of occupancy constituted a substantial burden on religious exercise).

18 8 Peaceful Coexistence Report alternatives are unavailable. 18 Compelling governmental interest generally involves furthering an overriding goal such as mandatory participation in and contribution to the Social Security system. 19 The interpretation of these concepts as they apply to RFRA draws both on existing legal precedents and a growing body of law interpreting RFRA and RLUIPA. Smith has never been overturned by the Court, however, and might still apply to Free Exercise controversies between private parties 20 or in some cases between an individual and a state in the absence of state law providing otherwise. 21 Claimants have challenged such restrictions on the exercise of religious conduct, with varying results. 22 Subsequent to its Free Exercise rulings, the Supreme Court has addressed religious freedom under free speech doctrines such as viewpoint discrimination or neutrality, and reaffirmed the ministerial exemption. Rarely dispositive although frequently asserted by claimants is the doctrine of expressive association, which says that the First Amendment protects the rights of 18 Holt, 135 S.Ct. 853 (2015); Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2782 (2014) ( [we] conclude that the HHS regulations fail the least-restrictive-means test. HHS itself has demonstrated that it has at its disposal an approach that is less restrictive than requiring employers to fund contraceptive methods that violate their religious beliefs. ); McAllen Grace Brethren Church v. Salazar, 764 F.3d 465, (5 th Cir. 2014) ( In the context of these cases, least restrictive means is a severe form of the narrowly tailored test... The very existence of a governmentsanctioned exception to a regulatory scheme that is purported to be the least restrictive means can, in fact, demonstrate that other, less-restrictive means could exist... Furthermore, the Department must provide actual evidence, not just conjecture, demonstrating that the regulatory framework in question is, in fact, the least restrictive means. ). 19 U.S. v. Lee, 455 U.S. 252 (1982) (government has overriding interest in social security program that outweighs religious rights of Amish employers seeking exemption for their employees); see also Holt, 135 S.Ct. 853 (2015) (government must show compelling interest as applied to the particular person; in this case the showing as applied to petitioner was not compelling). 20 Smith does not interfere with the ministerial exemption of religious organizations, which are generally treated as private organizations even though qualifying for various tax exemptions. 21 See Richard Schragger, The Politics of Free Exercise After Employment Division v. Smith: Same-Sex Marriage, the 'War on Terror,' and Religious Freedom, 32 CARDOZO L. REV (2011). 22 Compare Elane Photography v. Willock, 309 P.3d 53 (N.M. 2013), cert. denied, 134 S.Ct (2014) (holding New Mexico s State RFRA not applicable to suits between private litigants where government is not a party even if enforced by a government agency, therefore nondiscrimination law prevailed over the State RFRA) with Fraternal Order of Police Newark Lodge No. 12 v. City of Newark, 170 F.3d 359 (3d Cir. 1998) (then-judge Samuel Alito writing, holding Sunni Muslim police claimants entitled to wear beards despite police policy because city had no compelling reason to deny religious exemption).

19 Discussion 9 persons to associate with like-minded others. Judicial opinions turning chiefly on expressive association have been inconsistent and the doctrine undeveloped. 23 Viewpoint Discrimination Two important Supreme Court free speech cases decided the question of impermissible viewpoint discrimination against religious groups. Rosenberger v. Rector concerned an action brought against the University of Virginia by a Christian student newspaper challenging denial of funds for printing costs. 24 The Court found for the newspaper, holding that the school s denial was impermissible viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. Another, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 25 involved a Christian club for children that was refused permission to use school facilities after hours. The Court again held that this constituted impermissible viewpoint discrimination. 26 In both cases, the Court s reasoning was that the schools were singling out the Christian groups because of the groups views. Viewpoint Neutrality Christian Legal Society v. Martinez 27 (Martinez) was a narrowly decided case concerning the limits of religious expression and association rights within a public university. This involved the University of California Hastings law school s refusal to grant official recognition to the Christian Legal Society as a recognized, on-campus student organization, because it violated the school's viewpoint-neutral all-comers policy. The all-comers policy said that no student could be denied admission to or a leadership role in any school-sponsored or school-recognized 23 Compare Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000) (Boy Scouts of America had an associational right to bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders as inconsistent with the values it seeks to instill) with Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, (1984) (striking down Jaycees refusal to allow admission of women: The Court has long recognized that, because the Bill of Rights is designed to secure individual liberty, it must afford the formation and preservation of certain kinds of highly personal relationships a substantial measure of sanctuary from unjustified interference by the State... factors that may be relevant include size, purpose, policies, selectivity, congeniality, and other characteristics that in a particular case may be pertinent... [but] the local chapters of the Jaycees are large and basically unselective groups. See also John D. Inazu, The Unsettling Well-Settled Law of Freedom of Association, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 149 (2010). 24 Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819 (1995). 25 Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001); accord Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh, 620 F.3d 775 (7th Cir. 2010) (holding university could not refuse to fund a religious student organization s speaker since it funded other student group speakers). 26 Good News Club, 533 U.S. 98 (2001) (The Court rejected the school s Establishment Clause claims); accord Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh, 620 F.3d 775(7 th Cir. 2010) (Judge Easterbrook held his opinion pending release of the Court s Martinez decision and held that the university could not refuse to fund a religious student organization s speaker since it funded other student group speakers). 27 Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661, 130 (2010).

20 10 Peaceful Coexistence Report group based on viewpoint or beliefs, even if those beliefs contradicted or conflicted with the tenets of the group. The school claimed that the Christian Legal Society violated this all-comers policy by denying those who did not sign a Statement of Faith 28 the opportunity to be voting members and leaders of the group, thus discriminating against non-believers although the group s activities were open to all as participants. The Society viewed this as a pretext for discriminating against it because of its views, since in viewpoint discrimination cases the schools' refusals to pay for religious student group activities had, for the most part, gone against the schools. 29 The Society alleged that the school s refusal violated its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free exercise of religion, expressive association and free speech. 30 The Society lost in lower federal courts and ultimately also at the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision. The Court majority declined to credit the Society's claims that the school s refusal of recognition violated its Free Exercise or expressive association rights. Instead, the majority reasoned that the school s recently adopted all-comers policy that applied to all groups was the proper basis for a less exacting form of review, known as limited-publicforum speech review. This review receives a lower level of judicial scrutiny and requires only that the restriction on speech or conduct be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral. The Court accepted the school s rationale and held that the restriction was both reasonable and viewpoint- 28 The Society s Statement of Faith included such tenets as an affirmation of trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, belief that marriage is only between a man and a woman, and that non-marital sexual intercourse is sinful. Id. at 672 n The fact of a subsidy or funding is often not dispositive. Religious institutions that accept exemptions from federal and state taxes do not thereby relinquish their ministerial exemptions from antidiscrimination employment laws, for example. See Badger Catholic, 620 F.3d at (7 th Cir. 2010) (citing Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 265 (1981) (holding university may not deny rent-free room to religious student group if others allowed it; in-kind subsidies no different from cash subsidies)); see also Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002) (finding presence of government funding for religious school tuition not decisive in Establishment Clause claim). But government funds or exemptions have been allowedly withheld from groups the Court deems discriminatory. See Bob Jones Univ. v. U.S., 461 U.S. 574 (1983). 30 All noncommercial expressive associations, regardless of their beliefs, have a constitutionally protected right to control the content of their speech by excluding those who do not share their essential purposes and beliefs from voting and leadership roles. For Hastings College of the Law to force the Christian Legal Society chapter to admit non-adherents into its leadership and voting ranks - on pain of exclusion from an otherwise open speech forum - violates Petitioner s rights of speech, expressive association, and free exercise of religion. Brief for Petitioner at 2, Christian Legal Soc'y Chapter of the Univ. of Cal. v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010) (No ).

21 Discussion 11 neutral, since the school s stated purpose was to foster inclusion, exposure to different views, and nondiscriminatory selection standards. 31 The Martinez petitioners (the Christian Legal Society) argued that even given the school s power to withhold recognition, it still had to justify its decision by showing a compelling governmental interest by looking at the relative costs to the Society compared to the benefits to students who did not adhere to the Society's credo but wished to be voting members or leaders. The Society argued that the school was in fact exercising viewpoint discrimination based on the school's disapproval of the Society s principles, since Hastings did not prohibit political or ideological discrimination by other student groups until this issue arose. 32 The danger as seen by the Society was that of forced theological drift or total exclusion of religion from the public square; the danger as seen by those claiming nondiscrimination rights was a retreat from such rights. The Martinez decision regarding the limited-public-forum doctrine and religious exemptions is limited in certain important respects. First, because it concerned university governance, the Court cautioned restraint in substituting judicial views of appropriate educational policy for those of school administrators and individual states, even though the policy touched on religion. 33 The Court also reasoned that having a nondiscrimination policy avoided the school s having to pass judgment on a student group s reasons for excluding applicants. Third, the Court accepted the school s rationale that encouraging tolerance among students of different backgrounds was 31 The Court s dissenters agreed with the Christian Legal Society that the all-comers policy was enacted as a pretext for otherwise prohibited viewpoint discrimination against CLS s beliefs. Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties: Before the U.S. Comm n on Civil Rights (March 22, 2013) (hereafter Briefing Tr.) at 10 (statement of Kimberlee Wood Colby, Senior Counsel, Center for Law & Religious Freedom of the Christian Legal Society), available at Briefing-Transcript_ pdf; Martinez, 561 U.S. 661, 706 (2010); see also Toni M. Massaro, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez: Six Frames, 38 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 569 (2011) (a viewpoint neutrality analysis may unreasonably burden Free Exercise); see also Eugene Volokh, Freedom of Expressive Association and Government Subsidies, 58 STAN. L. REV. 1919, (2006) (arguing that although judicial guidance is murky, the government may not have a compelling reason to withhold a subsidy to a campus faith group that discriminates against nonbelievers since circumstances may show a substantial burden on religious expression and the harm to students excluded as non-believers is likely minimal). John D. Inazu has suggested that the Court turn analytically to a right of assembly to preserve religious association rights. Inazu, supra note Justice Alito in dissent wrote: In fact, funding plays a very small role in this case. Most of what CLS sought and was denied such as permission to set up a table on the law school patio would have been virtually cost free. If every such activity is regarded as a matter of funding, the First Amendment rights of students at public universities will be at the mercy of the administration. As CLS notes, [t]o university students, the campus is their world. The right to meet on campus and use campus channels of communication is at least as important to university students as the right to gather on the town square and use local communication forums is to the citizen. (internal quotations omitted). See Martinez, 561 U.S. 661, 718 (2010). 33 Id. at

22 12 Peaceful Coexistence Report important, and fourth, deferred to state nondiscrimination law in view of state subsidies to the school. 34 In its reasoning, the Martinez Court viewed as significant that the Society had access to school facilities for meetings, the use of bulletin boards for notices of events, and private social media methods of communication; that the prospect of students seeking to undermine the Society s functioning was hypothetical with no basis in school history; and that students who exploited the all-comers policy to destroy the group s mission would be grounds for the school to revise its policy. The Court declined to address the issue of selective enforcement of the policy and sent Martinez back to the Ninth Circuit to consider the Society s pretext argument. 35 The scope of the power of government to use nondiscrimination rules that collide with religious expression and association continues to be debated. 36 On one hand, to be able to express a religious group ideal, belief, or identity unavoidably means selection of leaders who are compelled by their religion to express those beliefs. 37 Religious beliefs by their nature often, but not always, set limits that exclude other beliefs. 38 In addition, some adherents feel that government should not impede campus religious group speech on an issue specifically addressed in the Constitution ( Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ). 39 The Martinez Court held otherwise, however. 34 Not specifically addressed, but an undercurrent in cases involving deference to states' control over their public universities, is the federalism-based view that states ought to have some leeway in regulating their schools and picking their way between the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. See Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004) (holding Washington State's refusal to fund a theology program did not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution). 35 The Society lost on remand. See Christian Legal Society v. Wu, 626 F.3d 483 (9 th Cir. 2010) (holding Society did not initially raise the selective enforcement issue and thus failed to preserve its pretext claim for appeal). 36 See Michael Paulson, Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy, N.Y. TIMES (June 9, 2014), available at see also Will Creeley, NY Times on Lasting Impact of CLS v. Martinez, THE FIRE (June 10, 2014), available at 37 See Brief for American Center for Law and Justice et al. as Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioners 19, Christian Legal Soc'y Chapter of the Univ. of Cal. v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661(2010) (No ) ( In contrast to the government s legitimate interest in ensuring racial equality, the government simply has no legitimate interest whatsoever in seeing to it that Jewish groups admit Hindus to membership or leadership positions, that Protestants admit Catholics, that Baha i admit Eastern Orthodox, or any other conceivable example. ). 38 Volokh, supra note 31 at , A substantial burden [from denying an exemption] clearly exists... for a Christian students group that sincerely feels a religious compulsion to gather only with like-minded members who behave consistently with what the group sees as Christian morality U.S. CONST. amend. I. This is different from denying subsidies to groups who may wish to admit members for marginally related pursuits, such as social fraternities or sororities who have a preponderance of single-religion members and try to keep it that way, see Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 648 F.3d 790 (9 th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 132 S.Ct (2012) (finding school nondiscrimination policy prohibiting sorority/fraternity religion requirement did not violate First Amendment).

23 Discussion 13 The Martinez holding does not bar public colleges from recognizing student faith groups that restrict the right to vote or hold office in the organization to those subscribing to the organization s statement of faith and some, in fact, do grant such recognition. 40 At least one other, however, has instituted an all-comers policy statewide, denying recognition to all the Society s chapters. 41 A very recent case that extended the Court s jurisprudence on viewpoint neutrality is Reed v. Gilbert 42 in which a town restricted the size of signs erected by a church to direct worshippers to various temporary locations near the town but did not restrict the size of political signs erected during election season. The Court held that this restriction of church sign dimensions failed the content-neutrality strict scrutiny test and was therefore content-based regulation that the First Amendment prohibits. 43 Ministerial Exemption Compared to the all-comers policy and limited-public-forum speech analysis, the ministerial exemption is less controversial. The Court unanimously endorsed this exemption, applied for decades in the lower courts, in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 44 (Hosanna-Tabor). This case involved the dismissal of a teacher responsible for instructing children in both secular and religious subjects when she attempted to return to work after a long absence because of narcolepsy. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought suit against the church on the teacher s behalf for violation of the retaliation and disability provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 45 All nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court found that the teacher was a minister of religion for the purposes of the First Amendment using a multi-factor test largely specific to the circumstances, and rejected the EEOC s claim that the nondiscrimination provisions of the ADA 40 Briefing Tr. at 13 (statement of Kimberlee Colby, Christian Legal Society); see also briefing slide presentation, Speaker Kimberlee Colby (Christian Legal Society) (University of Texas at Austin New Student Organization Registration Application: An organization created primarily for religious purposes may restrict the right to vote or hold office to persons who subscribe to the organization s statement of faith. ) (emphasis added.) 41 See Memorandum from Charles B. Reed, Chancellor, California State University (Dec. 21, 2011), available at see also Kimberly Winston, InterVarsity, College Christian Group, 'De- Recognized' At California State University Campuses, HUFF. POST (Sept. 10, 2014, 11:59 AM), available at 42 Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 135 S.Ct (2015). 43 Id. at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012). 45 Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C (1990).

24 14 Peaceful Coexistence Report took precedence over a church s freedom to choose its ministers. Since the teacher was deemed a minister under the Court s analysis, the Court rejected the EEOC s assertion that someone other than the religious institution had the right to sit in judgment over the teacher's suitability or that any specific test such as the amount of time spent by the teacher on religious subjects was determinative. 46 The Court held that the ministerial exemption applied in this case and was grounded in the special solicitude the Constitution grants to religious organizations under the First Amendment. 47 Religious Accommodation in Employment under Title VII Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of prohibits an employer from refusing employment to someone to avoid having to grant a religious accommodation, as long as it can grant such accommodation without undue hardship. In EEOC v. Abercrombie and Fitch Stores, Inc. (Abercrombie), 49 the petitioner was a practicing Muslim who applied to an Abercrombie store wearing a headscarf. The store had a policy dictating the appearance of its sales personnel, which the store manager believed would not allow headgear of any kind. The Court reasoned, however, that mere neutrality of policy was immaterial since Title VII accords favored treatment to religious practices. 50 The Court observed that Abercrombie either knew, or at least suspected, that her headscarf was worn for religious reasons, which was enough to invoke the protection of Title VII. 51 As a result, the Supreme Court unanimously held that because Title VII is silent on the question of whether an employer must have actual knowledge of the need for religious accommodation, a job applicant may prove a disparate treatment claim by showing that his or her need for religious accommodation was a motivating factor in not being offered a job, regardless of the employer s actual knowledge that the applicant s practice was religious and required an accommodation Hosanna-Tabor, 132 S.Ct. at The Court held (in a footnote) that the ministerial exemption is an affirmative defense that allows a religious organization to dismiss a suit brought against it, not a jurisdictional bar. Id. at n It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., 135 S.Ct (2015). 50 Id. at Id. at 2031, Id. at 2033.

25 Discussion 15 Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act The Court has interpreted the federal RFRA in two relatively recent cases. In Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente, 53 the government sought to ban a sect s religious use of a hallucinogenic tea under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. The Court overturned lower court holdings and unanimously found that the government had failed to show that it had a compelling interest in the application of a ban that allowed for no exceptions. 54 The Court emphasized that the very existence of RFRA reflected Congress s determination that exemptions and accommodations are sometimes appropriate. 55 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 56 a Supreme Court case decided after the Commission s briefing, asked whether, in the context of the Affordable Care Act s (ACA) 57 contraceptive mandate, RFRA s religious exemptions are available to for-profit corporations that are closely held and whose owners sincerely held religious beliefs would be substantially burdened by compliance with the mandate. The contraceptive mandate of the ACA required that insurance plans available to businesses for their employees provide contraceptives, some of which Hobby Lobby Stores viewed as abortifacients, and also other reproductive services at no out-of-pocket cost to employees. 58 The Court decided 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby Stores, holding that Hobby Lobby Stores and by implication other closely-held, for-profit secular entities, may invoke RFRA s protections. The Hobby Lobby holding was the first time the Court had squarely held that RFRA applies to a forprofit secular corporation, and it has already had an effect on lower courts rulings in related areas. 59 The Hobby Lobby Court looked at the ACA s burden on religious adherents and concluded that the coercive nature of the burden requiring Hobby Lobby Stores to provide contraceptives was substantial. The Court assumed that there was a compelling governmental interest, but held that the government did not use the least restrictive means of furthering the ACA requirement that the 53 Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006). 54 Id. at Id. at Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014). 57 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No , 124 Stat. 119 (2010) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 26 and 42 U.S.C.). 58 See Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act 78 Fed. Reg (Dep t of Health and Human Services July 2, 2013), 45 C.F.R Part 147 and 156 (2015). 59 See Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. v. Sec y, United States HHS, 756 F.3d 1339 (11th Cir. 2014) (enjoining HHS from enforcing certain Affordable Care Act provisions); see also McAllen Grace Brethren Church v. Salazar, 764 F.3d 465 (5th Cir. 2014) (government failed to show compelling reason to impose restriction on American Indians not federally recognized as members of a tribe from owning bald eagle feathers for religious purposes).

26 16 Peaceful Coexistence Report employer provide certain reproductive products and services since other means of providing the products and services were readily available. The Court found substantial coercion from both the cost burden to the stores from refusing to provide the reproductive products and services - hundreds of millions of dollars of fines per year 60 - and substantial coercion in requiring the owners of the corporation to violate their religious beliefs. Many view the Hobby Lobby decision as diminishing the rights of female employees employed by certain businesses to control their own care and receive essential medical insurance coverage. Some consider this to be a reminder of an era in which women s concerns were not considered as important as, and indeed were subrogated to, those of men. In addition, opponents saw the ruling as violating the rights of those who were merely third parties (the insured employees) by denying coverage 61 and removing some of the protections of antidiscrimination law. Those who supported the right of private, for-profit entities to religious exemptions instead viewed the decision as striking a reasonable balance between an individual's right to coverage under a generally applicable law and protection of religious liberty, since the government had other means available to provide the contraceptives in question and employees were still able to buy them. Following the Hobby Lobby decision, the Court took up the question of whether same-sex couples have a right under the Constitution to marry, regardless of any State law prohibiting recognition of such marriage. In Obergefell v. Hodges (Obergefell) 62 the Court in a 5-4 decision found that petitioners do have the constitutional right to marry and also the right to have their 60 At issue in Hobby Lobby were HHS regulations promulgated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The ACA generally requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer a group health plan or group health insurance coverage that provides minimum essential coverage, 26 U.S.C. 5000A(f)(1)- (f)(2), 4980H(a), (c)(2)(a). Any covered employer that does not provide such coverage must pay a substantial fee. Specifically, if a covered employer provides group health insurance but its plan fails to comply with ACA's grouphealth-plan requirements, the employer may be required to pay $100 per day for each affected individual, 4980D(a)-(b). And if the employer decides to stop providing health insurance altogether and at least one full - time employee enrolls in a health plan and qualifies for a subsidy on one of the government-run ACA exchanges, the employer must pay $2,000 per year for each of its full-time employees, 4980H(a), (c)(1). For Hobby Lobby, the bill was estimated to amount to $1.3 million per day or about $475 million per year; for Conestoga, Hobby Lobby s co-respondent, the assessment was $90,000 per day or $33 million per year, Hobby Lobby, 134 S.Ct. at See Griffin Statement, infra. 62 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015).

27 Discussion 17 marriages recognized in all other States of the Union. 63 This decision will likely provide a rationale for future tests of limits to religious exemptions under RFRA and the Constitution. Obergefell petitioners, in a cluster of consolidated cases, argued that state prohibitions against recognition of same-sex marriage violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, held that the right to marry is fundamental under the Constitution; that same-sex couples have the same right to marry and have their marriages recognized in all other States as do persons of the opposite sex; that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects individual liberty; that such liberty includes the freedom to marry a person of one s own choosing; and that excluding gays and lesbians from marriage demeans them and bars them from entering into a central institution of society. The opinion also stated that those who adhere to religious or other doctrines that do not condone same-sex marriage are protected by the First Amendment, and may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered. 64 Justice Kennedy concluded with the words, [no] union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family [petitioners ] hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. Pros and Cons As Seen By Legal Scholars Legal scholars and advocates participating in the Commission s briefing represented well the often-stark differences in views of religious rights held not only by scholars but also by the public. 63 Based on the Obergefell decision, the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeal have struck down other state-law, same-sex marriage prohibitions (similar to those at issue in Obergefell) and held that states cannot refuse to recognize same-sex marriages lawfully performed in other states, see Robicheaux v. Caldwell, 791 F.3d 616 (5 th Cir. 2015); Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, 791 F.3d 625 (5 th Cir. 2015); De Leon v. Abbott, 791 F.3d 619 (5 th Cir. 2015); Chevalier v. Estate of Barnhart, 803 F.3d 789 (6 th Cir. 2015); Waters v. Ricketts, 798 F.3d 682 (8 th Cir. 2015); Jernigan v. Crane, 796 F.3d 976 (8 th Cir. 2015); Rosenbrahn v. Daugaard, 799 F.3d 918 (8 th Cir. 2015). 64 Obergefell at 2607.

28 18 Peaceful Coexistence Report Pro-Religious Exemption A pro-religious-exemption view of the Free Exercise debate is that the all-comers policy passing muster with the Court in Martinez should have been held unconstitutional on its face, regardless of any subsidy or non-subsidy. 65 From this point of view, the policy eviscerates both the right of assembly and the free exercise of religion, since it prevents the formation of group worship and activities. The statements of experts Kimberlee Colby, Ed Whelan, Lori Windham and John Inazu support this view for multiple reasons. Their reasons for requiring state actors to carve out exceptions for religiously motivated discrimination from generally applicable laws are that such laws, despite being generally applicable, 1) interfere with the constitutionally important right to associate with others holding similar religious views, 2) discriminate against the viewpoints of religious persons using the pretext of nondiscrimination policy, 3) block disfavored groups from school benefits accorded all other groups, 4) deny freedom to choose leaders who can be effective in the organization, 5) fail to weigh the benefits and harms of denial, so that even a virtually nonexistent harm outweighs religious freedom, 6) force participation in actions identified as sinful, 7) deny the right to live according to deeply held beliefs, and 8) deny the right to dissent from majoritarian politics. Kimberlee Colby of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) emphasized the importance of the freedom to associate with like-minded others to pursue religious ideals. As did many of the other speakers, she discussed the policy conflicts over religious freedom in Martinez 66 (viewpoint neutrality rules) and Hosanna-Tabor 67 (ministerial exemption). Ms. Colby said that because of Martinez, increasingly colleges are telling religious students that they cannot meet on campus if they require their group s leaders to agree with the group s religious beliefs. 68 Ms. Colby s view is that Martinez should have been decided in line with earlier cases such as Healy v. James, which held that the First Amendment required a public college to stop exercising viewpoint discrimination against the campus Students for a Democratic Society, and Widmar v. Vincent, which held that student group recognition was not endorsement. She stated that it is impossible for a student group to function on campus without university recognition, since only recognized groups may reserve meeting space, communicate with other students using mass s, and apply for funding. 69 According to Ms. Colby, once the Court held in Healy that a state university s disagreement with a group s beliefs did not 65 See generally Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006); see also U.S. v. Rutherford Cnty., Tenn., No. 3: , 2012 WL (M.D. Tenn. July 18, 2012). 66 Christian Legal Soc y Chapter of the Univ. of Cal. v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010). 67 Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012). 68 Briefing Tr. at 8-9 (statement of Kimberlee Colby, Christian Legal Society). 69 Briefing Tr. at 9-10 (statement of Kimberlee Colby, Christian Legal Society).

29 Discussion 19 justify denial of recognition, and in Widmar that the Establishment Clause was not a justification for denying recognition, colleges turned to misusing university nondiscrimination and speech policies as a pretext for denying recognition to religious groups and excluding them from campus, as Vanderbilt University did in Lori Windham of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which protects religious freedom for believers in all religious traditions, expressed similar views. Her organization has for example defended a mosque facing discrimination from its neighbors, a Santeria priest banned from performing animal sacrifice, and Amish home builders facing imprisonment for refusing to adhere to building codes that violate their religious beliefs. Ms. Windham stated that a church should have a right to decide who will guide it without the involvement of the government. She invoked the Supreme Court s view that the interests of society in enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important, but so too is the interest of religious groups in teaching who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. 71 Ms. Windham noted the success of the Becket Fund in successfully representing the Lutheran church before the Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC based on these religious principles. 72 Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center offered a guide to thinking through how nondiscrimination principles should apply. He distinguished between rules governing governments and those governing private citizens since unlike individuals, governments do not have civil liberties that can be burdened. Mr. Whelan opposed the federal Health and Human Services Department s regulation requiring many employer-provided health insurance plans to include forms of contraception that may operate as abortifacients or sterilization. He offered three reconciliation principles for nondiscrimination and civil liberties: 1) traditional liberalism distinguishes between the rules that the government must follow and the rules that apply to the conduct of ordinary citizens, which in this case means that intrusion on civil liberties must pass a much higher bar as applied to nongovernmental organizations; 2) the paradigmatic and strongest case of a wrongful basis of discrimination is race; and 3) other bases of discrimination commonly prohibited under federal law are qualitatively different from race, such as sex-segregated restrooms. John Inazu of the Washington University Law School (St. Louis) discussed the constitutional importance of groups; the importance of specifying the benefits or harms caused by groups, and the dangers of the all-comers logic endorsed by Martinez. He believes that the First Amendment allows groups to secure self-realization, self-governance, and to dissent from majoritarian politics, all of which are valuable in a pluralistic society in support of the right to 70 Briefing Tr. at 11 (statement of Kimberlee Colby, Christian Legal Society). 71 Briefing Tr. at 25 (statement of Lori Windham, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty). 72 Briefing Tr. at (statement of Lori Windham, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty).

30 20 Peaceful Coexistence Report differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. 73 As to the possible harms caused by groups, he noted that the Martinez Court failed to explain either the harm caused by exclusion from the Christian law student group, or why that harm approximated the political, economic, and social harms addressed by civil rights laws. As to the benefits, he stated that Martinez also failed to account for the value of recognizing the constitutional importance of the Christian group s right to exist on its own terms in the public forum, including communicating with fellow students via university group . He concluded that the Court had ignored those constitutional values, failed to apply the appropriate analysis, and allowed an all-comers policy to act as a classic prior restraint that excluded the religious group from the public forum. Briefing speakers also generally sympathetic to protection for religious expression included Marc DeGirolami and Michael Helfand. As did Professor Inazu, both preferred to look at cases by balancing the interests at stake. Marc DeGirolami of St. John s University Law School recommended acknowledging conflicts in this area as inevitable and acceptable under our legal system, and refraining from attempts to make blanket rules that prevent doing justice in particular situations. He also posited that there could be no large-scale solution or consensus in this area. He approved of the Court s approach in Hosanna-Tabor that declined to adopt a rigid formula for deciding when an employee qualifies as a minister. 74 Michael Helfand of Pepperdine Law School supported the doctrine of church autonomy and the larger philosophical questions that inform the legal analysis of competing claims, which included 1) the important constitutional value of religious institutions in a liberal democracy, 2) appropriate limits on churches constitutional protections, 3) the relationship between punishing religious adherents misconduct and discrimination against religion, and 4) balancing the value of religious institutions against the difficulty of adjudicating conflicts. 75 Against Religious Exemption Other briefing speakers largely opposed such exemptions, preferring the ostensibly clearer and easier-to-apply solution expressed in Smith, which protected belief but not conduct. This noexemption view avoids having to define religion or religious views, something that is almost impossible except on a case by case basis, and even then, often difficult. The exemption opponents reasons were 1) schools must be allowed to insist on inclusive values, 2) throughout history, religious doctrines accepted at one time later become viewed as 73 W. Va. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, (1943). 74 For his views on the Roberts Court and Free Exercise, see Marc O. DeGirolami, Constitutional Contraction: Religion and the Roberts Court, STAN L. & POL Y REV., available at 75 For his view on church autonomy, see Michael A. Helfand, Religion s Footnote Four: Church Autonomy as Arbitration, 97 MINN. L. REV (2013), available at

31 Discussion 21 discriminatory, with religions changing accordingly, 3) without exemptions, groups would not use the pretext of religious doctrines to discriminate, 4) a doctrine that distinguishes between beliefs (which should be protected) and conduct (which should conform to the law) is fairer and easier to apply, 5) third parties, such as employees, should not be forced to live under the religious doctrines of their employers, 6) a basic right as important as the freedom to marry should not be subject to religious beliefs, and 7) even a widely accepted doctrine such as the ministerial exemption should be subject to review as to whether church employees have religious duties. Ayesha Khan of Americans United for Separation of Church and State stated that universities have a strong interest in barring exclusionary practices by recognized on-campus student organizations because a principal purpose of providing facilities and money is to enable students to participate in groups with others of different beliefs to further the school s educational purpose. She therefore agreed with the outcome in Martinez, and noted that Hosanna-Tabor turned on case-specific grounds and did not adopt any legal test for deciding when employment decisions would fall under the ministerial exception. She also pointed out that throughout history, religious doctrines that were widely accepted at one time came to be deemed highly discriminatory, such as slavery, homosexuality bans, and unequal treatment of women, and that what is considered within the purview of religious autonomy at one time would likely change. Her conclusion was that the law should not grant exemptions rather than defer to religious beliefs. Marci Hamilton of Cardozo Law School largely disagreed with the analysis and outcome in Hosanna-Tabor. She emphasized that an important holding of Hosanna-Tabor was a rejection of the ministerial exception as a jurisdictional bar to suits against religious institutions, but accepted that the case allowed a church to hire and fire religious teachers without being subject to nondiscrimination law. In Ms. Hamilton s view, the evidence showed that the church s actions were pretextual and retaliatory, and that the teacher s categorization as a religious teacher was unwarranted since her duties before and after her licensing as a called teacher were identical. She disagreed strongly that religious institutions should be allowed to decide for themselves who falls under a ministerial exception or that they should not be subject to nondiscrimination laws. She disagreed that there is a church autonomy doctrine. 76 Leslie Griffin of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Law School argued that religious liberty under the First Amendment should not be protected if expressed in conduct rather than belief, and that religious institutions should be subject to the same nondiscrimination laws as everyone 76 The church autonomy doctrine is the umbrella term for the principle that religious institutions may direct their own internal affairs free from government interference.

32 22 Peaceful Coexistence Report else. She cited with approval the Supreme Court s rejection of Bob Jones University s nonprofit status under IRS rules because of its religious ban on interracial relationships. 77 She also opposed any exemption that allowed an employer s religious views to be imposed on employees, an issue before the Supreme Court in Hobby Lobby, and disagreed with the provisions of RFRA that support such exemptions. 78 Two speakers, Daniel Mach of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and Alan Brownstein of the University of California Davis Law School, expressly supported the applicability of the Martinez Court s limited-public-forum analysis. Daniel Mach viewed the Martinez holding as answering the question of whether such groups have the right to receive subsidies from the government if they select leaders for their views, not whether they have the right to do so under other circumstances. He agreed with the Martinez Court that they do not. 79 He viewed Hosanna-Tabor as legitimizing the use of the ministerial defense by a church to hire and fire for religious reasons based on its authority as a religious institution. He agreed with the Court s decision but asserted the view that not every employee of a church can be considered a minister under this doctrine, only those who have doctrinal duties. He opposed any effort to expand the doctrine. Alan Brownstein argued that the Supreme Court increasingly construes both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause narrowly and claims that might have previously been decided under the Religion Clauses are instead decided as free speech claims. He argued that treating these claims as free speech rather than free exercise may ultimately undercut religious liberty by reducing it to merely a species of speech entitled to no more or less protection than secular speech, rather than a distinctive liberty interest that receives heightened protection. 80 He considered the recognition of same-sex marriage as a moral necessity for States and advocated treating religious freedom as an accommodation that in certain circumstances allows 77 None of the briefing speakers however, regardless of views, suggested that racial bias by a religious organization could be protected under an exemption pursuant to the First Amendment or RFRA. 78 Briefing Tr. at (statement of Leslie Griffin, Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas Law School), citing United States v. Lee, 455 U.S. 252, 261 (1982) (Upholding social security against religious objections: When followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity. ). 79 As to what constitutes a subsidy: The IRS takes the view that a tax exemption is a subsidy, see Regan v. Taxation with Representation, 461 U.S. 540, 544 (1983) ( Both tax exemptions and tax-deductibility are a form of subsidy that is administered through the tax system. A tax exemption has much the same effect as a cash grant to the organization of the amount of tax it would have to pay on its income. ). By this definition, private universities also receive subsidies, as do most businesses and individuals who claim deductions, a question unexplored in Martinez. 80 Briefing Tr. at (statement of Alan Brownstein, Univ. of California Davis Law School).

33 Discussion 23 discrimination on religious grounds. 81 Under his proposal, this would protect nonprofits more than commercial businesses. Public Comments The Commission received 110 written comments, an unusually large number for a Commission briefing. The comments originated from the United States, Canada, and Europe, and included individuals, religious groups, schools, professors and interest groups. Over one hundred comments generally supported religious exemptions and the right of religious institutions and groups to direct their own affairs regardless of otherwise applicable laws. A comment from Europe discussed and objected to five European laws that severely restrict religious exemptions from nondiscrimination laws, including Austria/EU, Spain/EU, Ireland, United Kingdom, and the European Union generally. Comments from religious groups that provide services to those in need (including child welfare networks) described the collision between government directives based on nondiscrimination requirements (usually relating to abortion, abortifacients, unmarried and/or same-sex couples seeking to adopt or foster) and the foundational principles of the charity. A comment from a public interest litigation group that has defended Free Exercise on over a hundred campuses stated that colleges use nondiscrimination regulations as a pretext for viewpoint discrimination against orthodox Christianity, since actual cases of exclusion of nonbelievers from campus religious leadership are rare. Other comments supported some or all of these views. A smaller number of submitted comments (seven) supported the primacy of nondiscrimination laws. An organization advocating on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people objected to the expansion of religious liberty exemptions because of their pervasive and harmful effect, and recommended going back to the 1990 Employment Division v. Smith era prior to the enactment of RFRA. A comment from a litigation and advocacy group protecting LGBT rights stated that nondiscrimination laws do not impinge on religious liberty. A task force comment on LGBT rights agreed. An interest group promoting secular/atheist views also objected to allowing religious exemptions. A university comment defended its nondiscrimination requirement for recognized student groups as not interfering with the expression of religious faith because any group refusing to open its membership to any student regardless of views is still allowed to meet on campus, recruit, and organize. The university stated that the sole disadvantage to such group is that it does not have official university recognition. Public comments submitted for the briefing are available from the Commission by writing to foia@usccr.gov. 81 Id.

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35 Findings and Recommendations 25 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Findings 1. Civil rights protections ensuring nondiscrimination, as embodied in the Constitution, laws, and policies, are of preeminent importance in American jurisprudence. 2. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed the foremost importance of civil liberties and civil rights, including non-discrimination laws and policies, in three significant cases. In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court applied the limited public forum and viewpoint neutrality doctrines in upholding the University of California Hastings Law School s denial of recognition - and provision of public resources to - a student group which failed to comply with school policy preventing recognized groups from discriminating on the basis of religion. Under Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, public colleges still may choose to recognize religiously-based student groups which practice discriminatory policies, but they are not required to do so. In EEOC v. Abercrombie and Fitch Stores, Inc., 135 S.Ct (2015), when it held that, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers may not refuse to hire an individual in order to avoid needing to provide a religious accommodation which would not impose undue hardship upon the employer. This case recognizes the tenet that religious freedom is, in itself, a civil liberty. In Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment grants the civil liberty of full marriage equality to same-sex couples throughout the nation. Prior to this ruling, during the Commission s briefing, panelist and University of California Davis Law School professor Alan Brownstein referred to governmental recognition of marriage equality as a moral necessity. 3. Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights. 4. The First Amendment s Establishment Clause constricts the ability of government actors to curtail private citizens rights to the protections of non-discrimination laws and policies. Although the First Amendment s Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) limit the ability of government actors to impede individuals from practicing their religious beliefs, religious exemptions from non-discrimination laws and policies must be weighed carefully and defined narrowly on a fact-specific basis. 5. With regard to federal government actions, RFRA protects only First Amendment free exercise rights of religious practitioners and not their Establishment Clause freedoms. Prior to

36 26 Peaceful Coexistence Report RFRA s enactment, the U.S. Supreme Court had held in Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), that the First Amendment had never been held to excuse [an individual s religiously motivated conduct] from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate. This holding strengthened nondiscrimination laws and policies against actors who asserted religious justification for civil rights discrimination. RFRA now supercedes Smith as a controlling source of federal authority. Some states have enacted statutes modeled after RFRA which impact state-level nondiscrimination civil liberties and civil rights protections. 6. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed the narrowness of the analytical framework within which claims of government interference with the free exercise of religion must be construed under RFRA. The Court also affirmed that meticulous factual inspection is necessary in the process of adducing - or rejecting - RFRA exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections. 7. The Commission endorses the briefing panelists statements as summarized at page 21 of the Report in support of these Findings. (1) schools must be allowed to insist on inclusive values; 2) throughout history, religious doctrines accepted at one time later become viewed as discriminatory, with religions changing accordingly; 3) without exemptions, groups would not use the pretext of religious doctrines to discriminate; 4) a doctrine that distinguishes between beliefs (which should be protected) and conduct (which should conform to the law) is fairer and easier to apply; 5) third parties, such as employees, should not be forced to live under the religious doctrines of their employers [unless the employer is allowed to impose such constraints by virtue of the ministerial exception]; 6) a basic [civil] right as important as the freedom to marry should not be subject to religious beliefs; and 7) even a widely accepted doctrine such as the ministerial exemption should be subject to review as to whether church employees have religious duties. Further, specifically with regard to number (2) above, religious doctrines that were widely accepted at one time came to be deemed highly discriminatory, such as slavery, homosexuality bans, and unequal treatment of women, and that what is considered within the purview of religious autonomy at one time would likely change. Recommendations 1. Overly-broad religious exemptions unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires. 2. RFRA protects only religious practitioners First Amendment free exercise rights, and it does not limit others freedom from government-imposed religious limitations under the Establishment Clause.

37 Findings and Recommendations In the absence of controlling authority to the contrary such as a state-level, RFRA-type statute, the recognition of religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws and policies should be made pursuant to the holdings of Employment Division v. Smith, which protect religious beliefs rather than conduct. 4. Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination. 5. States with RFRA-style laws should amend those statutes to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions. States with laws modeled after RFRA must guarantee that those statutes do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights with status-based discrimination.

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39 Commissioners Statements 29 COMMISSIONERS STATEMENTS AND REBUTTALS Chairman Martin R. Castro Statement The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. John Adams The phrases religious liberty and religious freedom will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance. Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others. However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality. In our nation s past religion has been used to justify slavery and later, Jim Crow laws. We now see religious liberty arguments sneaking their way back into our political and constitutional discourse (just like the concept of state rights ) in an effort to undermine the rights of some Americans. This generation of Americans must stand up and speak out to ensure that religion never again be twisted to deny others the full promise of America.

40 30 Peaceful Coexistence Report Commissioners Achtenberg, Castro, Kladney, and Yaki Statement I. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has spoken forcefully about the paramount importance of nondiscrimination laws and the imperative that religious exemption, to the extent required under law, be narrowly crafted. Progress toward social justice depends upon the enactment of, and vigorous enforcement of, status-based nondiscrimination laws. Limited claims for religious liberty are allowed only when religious liberty comes into direct conflict with nondiscrimination precepts. The central finding which the Commission made in this regard is: Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights. 1 Because religious exemption places a significant burden upon status-based civil liberties, the Commission cautioned that Overly-broad religious exemptions unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level 1 Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties, United States Commission on Civil Rights, (hereinafter USCCR Report), Finding #4, 2016, supra at 25. Also, as concluded in Finding #7: The Commission endorses the briefing panelists statements in support of these Findings as summarized at p. 26 of the Report: 1) schools must be allowed to insist on inclusive values; 2) throughout history, religious doctrines accepted at one time later become viewed as discriminatory, with religions changing accordingly; 3) without exemptions, groups would not use the pretext of religious doctrines to discriminate; 4) a doctrine that distinguishes between beliefs (which should be protected) and conduct (which should conform to the law) is fairer and easier to apply; 5) third parties, such as employees, should not be forced to live under the religious doctrines of their employers [unless the employer is allowed to impose such constraints by virtue of the ministerial exception]; 6) a basic [civil] right as important as the freedom to marry should not be subject to religious beliefs [footnote omitted]; and 7) even a widely accepted doctrine such as the ministerial exemption should be subject to review as to whether church employees have religious duties. Further, specifically with regard to number (2) above, religious doctrines that were widely accepted at one time came to be deemed highly discriminatory, such as slavery, homosexuality bans, and unequal treatment of women, and that what is considered within the purview of religious autonomy at one time would likely change. Id. supra at 26.

41 Commissioners Statements 31 must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires. 2 The fight to make religious-based exemptions to nondiscrimination laws preeminent over statusbased civil liberties protections is characterized often as a battle being waged by some Christians who purport to speak for all Christians. On the contrary, many Christian denominations and individuals support the notion that religious freedom can and should be expressed through principles and actions geared toward inclusion and toward the recognition and expansion of the rights of others. 3 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recognized the critical role that religion should fill in furthering, rather than hindering, secular, status-based civil liberties protections. When addressing racial discrimination in federal contracting, he declared Precisely because we cannot endure in love or justice the erosion and demoralization to minority groups that spring from discrimination in employment, the Church must be the first segment in the nation to stand firmly, not merely for the enunciation of the moral principle of non-discrimination, but it must also encourage and stand behind the Government when it carries out its obligation in refusing or withdrawing Federal contracts from those employers who do not in 2 Id. Recommendation #1, supra at 26. The Commission also endorsed the following key principles: Recommendation #2: RFRA [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] protects only religious practitioners First Amendment free exercise rights, and it does not limit others freedom from government-imposed religious limitations under the Establishment Clause. Recommendation #4: Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against statusbased discrimination. Recommendation #5: States with RFRA-style laws should amend those statutes to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions. States with laws modeled after RFRA must guarantee that those statutes do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights with status-based discrimination. Id. supra at See also A Blueprint for Reclaiming Religious Liberty Post-Hobby Lobby, Center for American Progress, June 2014, p. 13, available at Restoring the Balance: A Progressive Vision of Religious Liberty Preserves the Rights and Freedoms of All Americans, Center for American Progress, October 2015, available at and Striking a Balance: Advancing Civil and Human Rights While Preserving Religious Liberty, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, January 2016, available at 3 For example, the United Church of Christ provides a designation of Open and Affirming to congregations, campus ministries, and other bodies in the UCC which make a public covenant of welcome into their full life and ministry to persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. United Church of Christ, Open and Affirming in the UCC, available at

42 32 Peaceful Coexistence Report fact live up to the letter and spirit of the non-discrimination clause. The Church must have the courage and the resoluteness to support the Government when it determines to make examples of industries in dramatically cancelling large contracts where the principle of brotherhood is violated. For, in refusing to operate strictly within the framework of the contract, employers violate and degrade human personality - and our most sacred trust. 4 II. Threats to civil liberties, cloaked as religious freedom protection bills, are emerging in dozens of states and localities across the nation. In 2015, twenty-eight state legislatures were already considering more than eighty-five anti- LGBT bills by mid-march. 5 By early 2016, approximately two dozen state legislatures were considering at least that many bills which aim to limit Americans access to marriage rights, other government services, commercial services, health care services, adoption and foster care services, and other aspects of daily life based upon religious exemption. 6 Some of these farreaching proposals specifically target nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) Americans and some seek to limit women s rights to reproductive freedoms. Many proposals are moving very quickly, and advocacy groups are monitoring them on an almost-daily basis. The extent to which these proposals represent a backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court s June 2015 recognition of a right to marriage equality for same-sex couples 7 and President Obama s 4 King, Jr., Dr. Martin Luther, Address at the Religious Leaders Conference on May 11, 1959, Washington, D.C., The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, p. 201, available at f. 5 See, e.g., Anti-LGBT Bills Introduced in 28 States, Human Rights Campaign, March 24, 2015, available at and Wave of Anti-LGBT Bills in 2015 State Legislative Sessions, Human Rights Campaign, available at 1.amazonaws.com//files/assets/resources/2015_StateLegislation-Document_3_23.pdf. For a summary of 2015 state bills in related areas, see Anti-LGBT Religious Refusals Legislation Across the Country: 2015 Bills, American Civil Liberties Union, available at bills. 6 See, e.g., Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption Legislation Across the Country, American Civil Liberties Union, available at For a summary of 2016 bills to date, see LGBT Nondiscrimination and Anti-LGBT Bill Across the Country, American Civil Liberties Union, available at See also 1 Year After Hobby Lobby, 5 Ways Religion has Been Used to Discriminate, American Civil Liberties Union, June 30, 2015, available at and Can States Protect LGBT Freedom Without Compromising Religious Freedom?, The Atlantic, Jan. 16, 2016, available at 7 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015).

43 Commissioners Statements 33 Executive Order which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating upon the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation 8 is quite clear. Most are thinly-veiled attempts to turn back the clock, and will fall to constitutional challenge as overbroad and motivated by animus. A. First Amendment Defense Acts purport to elevate sweeping protections for religious freedom above status-based nondiscrimination laws and policies. Observers on the left and right doubt their constitutionality. The federal government and state governments are considering so-called First Amendment Defense Acts. In most relevant part, the June 2015 federal proposal would forbid the federal government from taking any discriminatory action against a person (defined to include for-profit corporations), wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage. 9 It is critical to note that some important conservative analysts oppose these acts. Among others, both the Cato Institute and The Volokh Conspiracy have voiced serious concerns about their fairness and constitutionality. Walter Olson, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, exposed the hypocrisy of the First Amendment Defense Act by highlighting that 8 Exec. Order No. 13,672, 79 Fed. Reg. 42,971 (July 21, 2014). 9 H.R. 2802, sec. 3(a), 114th Cong. (2015), available at See also S. 1598, available at Although the reference to discriminatory action is vague, the Act then specifies several examples of such action, including revoking an exemption from taxation under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, and denying any Federal grant, contract... license, certification, accreditation, employment, or other similar position or status from or to such person. The specificity of what religiously motivated actions are insulated from federal sanction and which punitive measures by government are barred is in quite sharp contrast to the sweeping and vague generalities of a scheme like RFRA or its state counterparts. [footnotes omitted.] Lupu, Ira C., Moving Targets: Obergefell, Hobby Lobby, and the Future of LGBT Rights, 7 Alabama Civ. Rts. & Civ. Lib. L. Rev 1, pp (2015), GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No ; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No , available at During the Presidential primary season for the 2016 election cycle, some Republican candidates either signed or swore fealty to following statement: If elected, I pledge to push for the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) and sign it into law during the first 100 days of my term as President. The American Principles Project and Heritage Action for America proffered the pledge to all Republican candidates for consideration. See Schweppe, Jon, Six Candidates Pledge to Sign First Amendment Defense Act Within First 100 Days, The Pulse, Dec. 17, 2015, available at

44 34 Peaceful Coexistence Report Astoundingly, the protection would run in one direction only: It would cover those who favor traditional definitions of marriage, while leaving those who might see merit in same-sex marriage or cohabitation or non-marital sex perfectly exposed to being fired, audited or cut off from public funds in retaliatory ways. The bill would also protect trad-values folk even when they are not religiously motivated, while denying protection to their opposite numbers even when they are religiously motivated. Despite its own avowals, this isn t actually a bill framed to protect religious exercise. 10 Volokh Conspiracy affiliate and law professor Dale Carpenter built carefully upon Olson s analysis and concluded that By offering government support and protection to only one set of beliefs (and necessarily to speech expressing those beliefs) in the debate over same-sex marriage (and the morality of sex outside such marriages), the FADA draws an explicit distinction based on viewpoint. Such distinctions are among the most disfavored ones in constitutional law because they involve government partisanship in favor of a particular set of ideas. The First Amendment Defense Act has the special property of assailing the thing it purports to defend. [emphasis added.] 11 State-level First Amendment Defense Act proposals have arisen as well. The dangers inherent in these proposals, which generally mirror the federal Act, are insidious. Targets of the discrimination which they seek to legitimize are not only LGBT people. Such laws could Shield those who would refuse service not only to same-sex couples but to anyone they disapprove of, including interracial, interfaith or remarried couples. For instance, [these state Acts could] offer a blanket defense to a domesticviolence shelter that might reject a single mother and her child because of her marital status. Georgia has no state laws protecting gays and lesbians against discrimination in housing or employment, but even in Atlanta, which does have 10 Olson, Walter, Gay Marriage and Religious Rights: Say Nada to FADA, Newsweek, Sept. 10, 2015, available at 11 Carpenter, Dale, The Volokh Conspiracy, More Criticism of the First Amendment Defense Act From the Right, The Washington Post, September 10, 2015, available at

45 Commissioners Statements 35 such protections, the bill would allow a hospital to prohibit a gay man from visiting his sick husband based on its religious views. 12 Georgia passed such a measure in March That same month, the Republican-controlled Missouri Senate adopted its version after a Democratic filibuster of approximately thirty-seven hours. 14 Hawaii, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Washington State are considering similar measures. 15 B. Some states are actively considering adopting or strengthening laws modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act in an effort to eviscerate nondiscrimination protections. The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 ( RFRA ) reinforces First Amendment protections from government intervention by clarifying that, in order to pass constitutional muster, a federal law impacting religious Free Exercise Clause rights must be narrowly tailored to further a compelling government interest. RFRA does not protect American s Establishment Clause freedoms. 16 Proponents of new attempts to place religious liberty above other nondiscrimination laws and principles on a wholesale basis are certainly emboldened by an overly broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court s holding in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. 17 As the Commission found, In Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed the narrowness of the analytical framework within which claims of government 12 A Georgia Bill Shields Discrimination Against Gays, The New York Times, Feb. 26, 2016, available at 13 See, e.g., Georgia Legislature Passes Controversial Religious Freedom Bill, Jurist, March 18, 2016, available at Whether or not Republican Governor Nathan Deal will sign the bill is unclear at the time of this writing. Governor Deal has made clear that he will not sign a bill that allows discrimination, but the parameters of what he considers to be discrimination for this purpose are unclear. See, e.g., Georgia Lawmakers Pass Anti-Gay Religious Liberty Bill, The Huffington Post, March 17, 2016 available at 14 Missouri Religious Exemption Measure Advances, ABC News, March 9, 2016, available at See also Missouri Senators Filibuster Religious Freedom Bill, CNN, March 9, 2016, available at 15 Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption Legislation Across the Country, American Civil Liberties Union, supra note Pub. L. No , 107 Stat (November 16, 1993), codified at 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000bb - bb-4; see also USCCR Report, supra note 1, Findings 5 and 6, at Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014).

46 36 Peaceful Coexistence Report interference with the free exercise of religion must be construed under RFRA. The Court also affirmed that meticulous factual inspection is necessary in the process of adducing - or rejecting - RFRA exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections. 18 In 2015, seventeen states addressed legislation aimed at creating or modifying religious exemption laws modeled after RFRA. 19 As of early 2016, twenty-two states have antidiscrimination laws that cover LGBT people, twenty-one states have RFRAs, and only four have both. [footnotes omitted.] 20 As of the first quarter of 2016, at least thirteen states were considering adding or amending RFRA-style laws USCCR Report, Finding #7, supra at 26. In an ironic twist, however, Hobby Lobby may turn out to be a friend of the LGBT rights movement. The decision provides a principled reason to oppose statutory exceptions to new antidiscrimination laws for any and all religious objectors; if LGBT rights advocates give an inch, they may lose a RFRA-pushed mile. Indeed, Hobby Lobby gives LGBT rights advocates strong grounds to assert the necessity of a generic exclusion from antidiscrimination laws of RFRA claims and defenses. [footnote omitted]. Lupu, supra note 9 at For summary charts, see, e.g., 2015 State Religious Freedom Restoration Legislation, National Conference of State Legislators, September 3, 2015, available at LGBT Policy Spotlight: State and Federal Religious Exemptions and the LGBT Community, Movement Advancement Project, available at and Anti-LGBT Religious Refusals Legislation Across the Country: 2015 Bills, American Civil Liberties Union, supra note In parsing out the complicated and confusing national picture, Professor Lupu went on to say that The arithmetic is simple - thirty-nine states have one or the other but not both ( , minus the overlap of 4). That means eleven states have neither a RFRA nor a state-wide LGBT antidiscrimination law. In March 2015, in Utah, the prominent and influential Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints joined with LGBT rights groups to present a compromise package, which soon became law. [footnotes omitted.] Lupu, supra note 9 at See also State Religious Exemption Laws, Movement Advancement Project, available at For more information on the particularly contentious fight in Indiana, see Live Updates: How the LGBT Rights Debate Played Out, IndyStar, Jan. 28, 2016, available at Indiana s LGBT Civil Rights Debate is Far From Over Despite Failure of Senate Bill 344, The Elkhart Truth, Feb. 16, 2016, available at Buzz/2016/02/16/Indiana-s-LGBT-civil-rights-debate-is-far-from-over-despite-failure-of-Senate-Bill-344.html. 21 Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption Legislation Across the Country, American Civil Liberties Union, supra note 6.

47 Commissioners Statements 37 C. Some states are attempting to limit the ability of same-sex couples to adopt and to provide foster care for children by using questionable religious freedom rationales. As of early 2016, at least five state legislatures - AL, FL, NE, OK, and UT - were considering limiting the rights of LGBT people s rights to adopt children and/or to provide foster care based upon the religious beliefs of the child-placing agencies. 22 Some legislators are asserting, in the name of the newly-minted concept of marriage sovereignty, 23 that while Obergefell requires the state to give same-sex couples civil marriage licenses, it does not mandate that the state allow permanent or temporary placement of children with LGBT families. 24 The timing of these claims, and the rhetoric being used to advocate for them, bolster the conclusion that they are suspect and will be viewed as constitutionally infirm if enacted. III. Wholesale religious exemptions threaten access to reproductive health and endanger women s lives. As noted below in Section IV, Members of Congress recently wrote to the Attorney General regarding the 2007 DOJ OLC memorandum addressing RFRA exemptions referred to instances in which it is being used to argue for the supremacy of religious exemptions over access to reproductive health care. 25 The refusal to provide certain reproductive health services violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. 26 One can only hope that Congress cannot have intended RFRA to justify suffering and to endanger human life. IV. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was born of a strongly bipartisan effort, has become highly politicized and a source of discriminatory overreach which must be curtailed. A coalition of progressives and conservatives led the charge for the passage of the initial version of RFRA in response to U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting the religious freedom rights of 22 See, e.g., Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption Legislation Across the Country: 2016 Bills, American Civil Liberties Union, available at Utah Panel Blocks Bill to Ensure LGBT Equality in Adoption, Foster Care, The Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 24, 2016, available at and Utah House Panel Rejects Gay Couples Adoption, Foster Care Bill, KSL.com, Feb. 24, 2016, available at 23 GOP Lawmaker Pushes Religious Freedom to Kill Bill Allowing Gays Equal Adoption Rights, The New Civil Rights Movement, Feb. 24, 2016, available at blocks_bill_allowing_gays_equal_adoption_rights. 24 See, e.g., Utah Lawmakers Use Religious Freedom Argument to Kill Same-Sex Adoption Bill, Fox13 Salt Lake City, available at 25 See infra n. 32 at U.S.C. 1395dd.

48 38 Peaceful Coexistence Report Native Americans. 27 At the Commission noted in its Report, RFRA passed the Senate by 97-3 and garnered no nay votes in the House. 28 However, subsequent conservative manipulation of RFRA s intent set the stage for the undermining of its bipartisan support and for turning what was intended to be a shield into a sword. In 2007, President George W. Bush s Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel ( OLC ) authored a memorandum encouraging an overbroad interpretation of RFRA - one which favored religious liberties in hiring over other civil rights considerations. 29 This interpretation is in strong contravention to the Commission s findings and recommendations. Almost five dozen widely diverse non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ) wrote to President Obama s Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009 requesting withdrawal of that memorandum. 30 In 2015, 130 NGOs wrote directly to President Obama requesting the same. 31 Four Members of Congress issued the most recent plea for the Administration s assistance in recognizing the dangers of this Memorandum, and undertak[ing] a review and reconsideration when they wrote to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on February 22, They express being deeply concerned that the OLC opinion is being cited with increasing frequency to protect discriminatory employment practices See, e.g., Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, 485 U.S. 439 (1988), and Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). 28 USCCR Report, supra note 1 at Application of the Religious Freedom Restoration act to the Award Of a Grant Pursuant to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act," Memorandum Opinion for the General Counsel Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, June 29, 2007, available at 30 Request for Review and Withdrawal of June 29, 2007 Office of Legal Counsel Memorandum Re: RFRA, American Civil Liberties Union, et al., Sept. 29, 2009, available at 31 Request for Review and Reconsideration of June 29, 2007 Office of Legal Counsel Memorandum Re: RFRA, American Civil Liberties Union, et al., Aug. 20, 2015, available at %20OLC%20Memo%20Letter%20to%20President-FINAL_2.pdf. 32 The Members went on to state that Although the OLC opinion is now more than eight and half years old, it remains problematic because it continues to be cited to justify blanket exemptions to nondiscrimination provisions in federally-funded programs. Just in the last year, it has been cited to justify a number of religion-based exemptions to nondiscrimination provisions, including beyond the employment context: LGBT Hiring Discrimination: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) cited the OLC opinion to argue that federal contractors with religious objections should be permitted to fire and refuse to hire LGBT people - in direct defiance of President Barack Obama s historic Executive Order barring such discrimination - and continue to be awarded contracts from the government. [footnote omitted.]

49 Commissioners Statements 39 The calls for review and reconsideration of the 2007 OLC memorandum must be heeded. The Administration should withdraw the memorandum which is used to justify attempts to allow religious freedoms to step too heavily on other nondiscrimination laws and policies. That the Administration would seek to give protections and services with one hand while potentially allowing them to be compromised with the other is of concern. V. Once the current tide of legislative proposals ebbs, vigilance still will be needed. Regardless of the pace at which American religious institutions do or do not embrace the reality of civil rights and liberties of LGBT families and of women, religious exemptions to them are, and must remain, few and narrow. Laws which permit discrimination, even if enacted on the basis of religious freedom, are unlikely to be successful when challenged on Constitutional bases. Professor Ira C. Lupu of the George Washington University Law School posits that it is hard to imagine a federal court find[ing] any constitutionally legitimate basis for any formal policy of exclusion, based on sexual orientation, from state created opportunities. Whether the policy is based on prejudice, animus, or sincere religious belief, it rests on reasons that the state is forbidden to pursue. [footnotes omitted.] 33 Some of the many overly-broad religious freedom legislative proposals discussed above will be Refusal to Provide Government-Funded Healthcare Services: The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), World Vision, USCCB, and other organizations cited the OLC opinion to argue that recipients of certain federal grants are not required to provide access to reproductive health care services and referrals, as required by law, to unaccompanied minors who have suffered sexual abuse. [footnote omitted.] Refusal to Serve Certain Patients: The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, USCCB, NAE, and others cited the OLC opinion to argue that RFRA guarantees them an exemption from the provision of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits sex discrimination - a nondiscrimination provision that protects women and LGBT patients - in the provision of healthcare programs and activities. [footnote omitted.] Each of these religion-based exemptions, if granted, threatens to undermine the Administration s own work in important policy areas and would seem to be contrary to the Administration s own position against discrimination in federally-funded programs. The OLC opinion appears to be at odds with these commitments. Conyers, Jr., Hon. John, Scott, Hon. Robert C., Cohen, Hon. Steve, and Nadler, Hon. Jerrold, Letter to the Honorable Loretta E. Lynch, Attorney General of the United States, Feb. 22, 2016, available at %20AG%20Lynch%20%20re%20OLC%20%20RFRA% pdf. 33 Id. at 6-7.

50 40 Peaceful Coexistence Report enacted, some will be defeated, and some will languish in committee. Many will face constitutional challenge and will be overturned by the courts. Nonetheless, the fervent ideological disagreements will continue. Therefore, government officials, advocacy groups, and concerned individuals, as well as persons of faith and of good will, 34 must remain alert and ready to combat future efforts. Nondiscrimination laws stand as a bulwark against the assaults of intolerance and animus. May it always be so. 34 Despite Obergefell s nod to the existence of good faith religious opinion against same sex marriage, religious objections to same sex intimacy will ultimately retain no more respect than religious objections to racial integration and inter-racial intimacy. In a nation committed to a more Perfect Union, the arc of the religious universe is long, but it too bends toward justice. [footnotes omitted.] Lupu, supra note 9 at

51 Commissioners Statements 41 Commissioner Karen K. Narasaki Statement Enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution, the right to exercise one s religion free from government interference is an essential civil and human right firmly embedded in the core of our country s DNA. Also enshrined in our Constitution is the fundamental principle that all persons are guaranteed equal protection under the law. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, inalienable rights proclaimed by our founders in the Declaration of Independence, are unattainable if one cannot live free from discrimination and be treated fairly under the law. While many people of faith have been an inspirational force for change and equality in our country, others hold to religious practices that may result in continued prejudice and discrimination against others. The First Amendment is a shield that ensures a diversity of religious views are allowed to flourish in the U.S. However, there are some seeking to make the right to exercise their religion a sword that can be used against others who do not conform with their interpretation of their faith. As a report by the Leadership Conference Education Fund notes, Freedom of religion, like freedom of speech and other constitutional rights, is not absolute: one person s religious liberty does not give him or her the right to harm another person or impose their religious beliefs or practices on someone else. 1 Great care must be taken to ensure that claims of religious liberty, however sincerely held, do not become a license to discriminate. Recent advances in the recognition of the rights of LGBT individuals, such as the Supreme Court s marriage equality decision in Obergefell v Hodges, have prompted some lawmakers and individuals to seek and expand religious exemptions to allow individuals and businesses to continue to discriminate against LGBT individuals at the marriage license office, in the workplace, and in places of public accommodations like businesses, hotels and restaurants. This development is a step backwards in the effort to guarantee equal access and opportunity for all Americans. The findings and recommendations in this report reflect the consideration needed to ensure that any religious exemption does not unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Religious freedom is a fundamental value, and so is the ideal that all persons should live free from discrimination. 1 Leadership Conference Education Fund, Striking a Balance: Advancing Civil and Human Rights While Preserving Religious Liberty 3 (2016), available at WEB.pdf.

52 42 Peaceful Coexistence Report Commissioner Peter Kirsanow Statement The subject of this briefing was the tension between nondiscrimination principles and religious liberty. The majority has resolved this tension resoundingly in favor of nondiscrimination. I will address five prominent issues that involve this tension: secularism and religion, Hosanna- Tabor v. EEOC, same-sex marriage, the HHS mandate, and Christian student groups. An additional commonality among the latter three issues is that they all involve issues of sexual behavior or sexual identity. I will address the majority s findings and recommendations separately. The conflict between religious liberty and nondiscrimination principles is profound. The passions involved may be fiercer than in any civil rights struggle since the 1960s, as both sides ultimate commitments are implicated. This debate will likely dominate civil rights discourse for at least a generation. And regardless of the outcome, we may emerge a very different country than the one we have been. This statement will primarily focus on conflicts between Christian beliefs, believers and nondiscrimination principles because the conflicts mentioned above have primarily involved Christians. 1 However, there is no reason why similar conflicts between other religious beliefs and nondiscrimination principles could not arise. Oddly enough, it is possible that Christianity is particularly vulnerable because it is both the majority religion and espouses certain principles about sexuality that are unpopular among both committed secularists and the population at large. Some secular elites seem to frown on any criticism of minority religions that adhere to many of the same moral standards as Christianity, yet despise much of what is associated with the religion of their forebears. The tension between nondiscrimination principles and religious liberty is based on the assumption that the rights in conflict are of equal weight, or even that nondiscrimination is of greater weight. 2 This assumption is erroneous. Religious liberty is an undisputed constitutional right. With the exception of racial nondiscrimination principles embedded in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, nondiscrimination principles are statutory or judiciallycreated constructs. 3 1 Gudrun Kugler, Opinion to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: Equality or Anti-Discrimination Legislation vs. Civil Liberties (Apr. 22, 2013) (on file with the Commission), at 2 ( Equal treatment legislation is phrased in an impartial way. But experience shows it is very often Christians who are taken to court. ). 2 See Chai R. Feldblum, Moral Conflict and Conflicting Liberties, in SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: EMERGING CONFLICTS (Douglas Laycock, Anthony R. Picarello, and Robin Fretwell Wilson, eds., 2008). 3 David E. Bernstein, You Can t Say That: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws 14 (2003).

53 Commissioners Statements 43 The tension between religious liberty and nondiscrimination principles appears most acute when religious liberty and sexual liberty conflict. There are at least two ways of conceptualizing the conflict. The first is as a conflict between two rights-the right to be served without discrimination based on one s sexual orientation, and the right to manifest one s religious beliefs by choosing whom to serve. The second is whether religious believers should receive exemptions from neutral laws of general applicability. But the conflict goes deeper. It is a conflict between two worldviews, both held with the intensity generally associated with religious belief. 4 The first, which is secularism, holds an individual s unfettered sexual self-expression as a preeminent concern because it is an aspect of their self-creation. 5 This interest in the individual is now construed as a positive responsibility to The Civil War amendments do not purport to guarantee substantive equality, much less to override the First Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment required states to provide all persons with equal protection of the laws (not equality per se), and the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. None of the Civil War amendments established a right to be free from private-sector discrimination. 4 Most Reverend Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, Irrelevant? Should Christianity Still Have a Voice in the Public Square?, Kings College London, Mar. 6, 2014, at 1, 2, available at [S]ecularism is more an attitude or atmosphere than fully worked-out system of thought. Yet essentially, secularism means a concern with the saeculum, the world, this world rather than the next. It is about living, at least in public, without religion and its sacred canopy. Secularism has a political dimension: the principle that Church and state, religion and politics, must be strictly separated. In other words, to protect the equality of every citizen in a pluralist society, politicians and policy makers adopt a neutral attitude toward religious groups and personal life-style choices, as long as behaviour remains within the law. Religion - beliefs about the meaning of life, the morally good, God and life after death - are strictly ring-fenced as matters of public opinion. Yet essentially, perhaps surprisingly, secularism is a Christian heresy. It is a deconstructed version of Christian morality, a set of second-order Christian values shorn from their theological moorings, a form of post-christian ethics that thrives because its values continue to derive their vitality from the Christian patrimony If religion is defined as belief in a deity, with a moral code based on that belief, and a theology that interprets it, then secularism is a reversed religion. Its core belief is doubt; its moral code is a way of life as if God does not exist; its theology is about being human. It even has its own theological terms such as equality, diversity, freedom, respect, tolerance, nondiscrimination, multiculturalism, social cohesion, ethnic communities, inclusivity, quality of life, sustainable development and environmentalism. All of these values are derived from fundamental Christian values. Thus, the secular concern for tolerance comes from the biblical love of neighbour but, disconnected from Christian practice and belief, it has become a soft value, free-wheeling, expanded with new meaning, now permitting what formerly was unlawful. 5 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Penn. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 851 (1993). Our law affords constitutional protection to personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education. Our cases recognize the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwanted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child (emphasis in original). Our precedents have respected the private realm of family life which the state cannot enter. These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one s own concept of existence, of meaning, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under the compulsion of the State [citations omitted].

54 44 Peaceful Coexistence Report ensure that everyone has the ability to engage in sexual conduct without cost or consequence, whether in money, unwanted children, or hurt feelings. An individual s sexual behavior is considered an act of self-creation and something that goes to the deepest level of their identity. 6 Criticism of an individual s behavior is considered an attack on the dignity of the person. Naturally, this worldview is at odds with many aspects of traditional morality grounded in sexual restraint. 7 The second worldview holds that individuals are not their own judge, but rather are subject to divine law and divine judgment. The morality of a person s conduct does not ultimately depend upon whether he thinks it is right, or whether it accords with his desires, but whether it conforms to divine law. Moral standards of behavior are external to a person, not internal. Therefore, even though people, including religious believers, fall short of these standards, they do not have the authority to change the standards. 8 Furthermore, it is a sin to assist another Ironically, in the realm of abortion, the justices conflate belief and conduct, the very thing the partisans of nondiscrimination urge the justices not to do in the case of religious liberty. After all, the law at issue in Casey restricted the individual s right to believe whatever he wanted about abortion and defining one s own concept of existence was completely untouched. The law only affected conduct. 6 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties, Mar. 22, 2013, at 100 [hereinafter Transcript ] ( sexual orientation is a fixed and core aspect of a gay or lesbian person s identity.... Neither gays, nor lesbians, nor devoutly religious individuals can reasonably be required to separate their conduct from their identity ). 7 John M. Finnis, Religion and State: Some Main Issues and Sources, 51 AM. J. OF JURISPRUDENCE 107, (2006), available at [S]elf-determination is now regarded, not least among our constitutional lawyers, as a form, not so much of shaping up as best one can to what one judges in conscience to be reason s demands on one, but rather as the bundling of one s strong desires, one s deep concerns, most considerable when most passionate. In such a line of thought (formalized within a year or two of Casey), religion is doubly discredited, first by the casual assumption that it is outside the domain of reason, and then by its hostility to its unwelcome critiques of and constraints upon deep desires. Its place in the constitution can be accepted only grudgingly as a historical relic and a monument to the threat that religions characteristically have posed to each other as well as to everyone s conscience (reconceptualized as the articulation of their deep concerns ). 8 Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism 154 (2011). Once you have established, as you think, what God is teaching in a given passage, what he is proposing for our belief, that settles the matter. You do not go on to ask whether it is true, or plausible, or whether a good case for it has been made. God is not required to make a case. See also John Finnis, NATURAL LAW AND NATURAL RIGHTS (2011). But those who claim to know what God wills in some human context, and that that will should be obeyed, are (as I have said) going beyond what can be affirmed about D on the basis of philosophical argumentation. They are claiming (like Plato, but relying unlike him upon some definite revelation) that God positively favours both the basic goods and human adherence to the principles and requirements of practical reasonableness in the pursuit of those goods; that the evils and disorders of this world are not favoured so, but are merely tolerated by God for the sake of some positive good (what, and how attained, we do not know); and that friendship with God, some sharing in God s life and knowledge and love-of-goods, is available to those who positively favour what God positively favours. In the context of such beliefs-and it is only in such a context that claims about the authoritativeness of God s will for man are plausibly made-the question Why should God s will be obeyed? has no bite.

55 Commissioners Statements 45 person in breaking the moral law, or to applaud breaking the moral law. In a predominantly Judeo-Christian society, this worldview is most closely reflected in the Ten Commandments. Although believers realize that they break the Ten Commandments both through what Christians often call sins of omission and sins of commission, they are not free to change Thou shalt not bear false witness to something more congenial. Instead, they are told to repent of their sin and to try to avoid repeating it. This is the nub of the conflict between the proponents of nondiscrimination norms and proponents of constitutionally-protected religious liberty. I. Secularism and Religion In The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom, Steven Smith argues that the American project has been subject to two interpretations - the secular and the providentialist. 9 Both interpretations commanded the allegiance of various statesmen. Madison and Jefferson adhered to the secularist view (though as Smith points out, both inclined more to the providentialist view than do many of their ideological heirs) and Washington and Lincoln adhered to the providentialist view. 10 During America s first century and a half of existence, both sides accepted the other s legitimacy and accepted that in some times and places one interpretation or the other would dominate. There was no definitive determination, Smith says, as to which interpretation was correct, but that was both the purpose and the genius of the First Amendment. Smith argues that this settlement ended, however, with the Supreme Court s decisions in Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp. 11 Part of the reason for the settlement s demise was because the meaning of terms had shifted without anyone really noticing. 12 Another reason was the increasing cultural divide between secularists and providentialists. The academy and the courts became increasingly committed to the secular interpretation, but large portions of the American public remained committed to the providentialist interpretation. Additionally, the secularists had arguably become more secular, if not outright hostile to religion, since the days of Jefferson. 13 The disagreement between the current views of secularists and providentialists is deep, but the extent of the disagreement probably was not recognized by either side until after Engel v. Vitale Steven D. Smith, The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom 9 (2014). 10 Id. at 9, Id. at Id. at Id. at 117. Smith notes that it was Jefferson who wrote Almighty God hath created the mind free. 14 Id. at Bruce Dierenfield reports that the first of these decisions, Engel v. Vitale, provoked the greatest outcry against a U.S. Supreme Court decisions in a century (a century that had included Brown v. Board of Education)....

56 46 Peaceful Coexistence Report Not only do the secularists believe the providentialists are wrong, but, Smith says, they regard the providentialist view as a heresy. 15 Naturally, the heretics vehemently disagree. One reason for the bitterness surrounding the debate is that the secularists tend to make their interpretation mandatory for society. Because they consider the providentialist view a heresy, and often regard the non-elite adherents of the providentialist view with disdain, they are unwilling to allow different views to exist in different places. Thus, the cases of secularists suing local governments to force them to remove a crèche, or end a town s legislative prayer, or forbid student prayers before graduation, are legion. On the other hand, the idea that a Baptist preacher would sue a town council to force it to institute legislative prayer is risible. Neither do the committed secularists accept that it might be constitutionally acceptable for the people of Burlington, Vermont not to have school prayer and the people of Jackson, Mississippi to have school prayer - and that if you live in either city and are so bothered by the local practice that you simply cannot tolerate it, you should either move to a more congenial city or put your child in private school. Furthermore, although the secularist project has intellectual roots that go back to the country s Founding, the realization of its vision entails a radical transformation of American society. This was well-expressed in the Obama administration s position in Hosanna-Tabor that there was no ministerial exception to the nondiscrimination laws. It is also exemplified in the decades-long crusade to remove the Mount Soledad cross from a California veterans memorial (in that case, the Department of Justice has weighed in on the side of the cross). 16 It requires purging the public And yet, revealingly, this reaction evidently came as a surprise to the justices themselves.... The justices who joined in the decisions, as well as many of their supporters, evidently viewed the decisions not only as continuous with longstanding constitutional principles but as relatively narrow in their implications.... Conversely, impassioned critics, including many ordinary Americans citizens, saw the decisions as radical and transformative. Here the understandings of the cultural elite and less privileged Americans parted: thus John Jeffries and James Ryan observe that the controversy over school prayer revealed a huge gap between the cultural elite and the rest of America. 15 Id. at 123. [T]he elevation of the secularist interpretation was a change - and a momentous one at that.... [Previously], Americans could believe and assert either secular or providential interpretations of the Republic, as seemed to them right, and they could elaborate and act on those interpretations with respect to whatever the local issues might be: school prayer, Sunday mail delivery, whatever. Both kinds of interpretations were constitutional (in the soft sense); neither was Constitutional (in the hard sense).... The modern Supreme Court seemingly failed to understand this complex strategy; in any case, the Court tacitly repudiated it. In effect, by elevating the secularist interpretation to the status of hard Constitutional orthodoxy, the Court placed the Constitution itself on the side of political secularism and relegated the providentialist interpretation to the status of a constitutional heresy. 16 Chelsea J. Carter, Obama attorneys: Cross atop California war veterans memorial is appropriate, CNN, Apr. 10, 2014, available at

57 Commissioners Statements 47 square of religious symbols, denying the validity of public policy with religious origins, and ending long-standing public religious practices. In some cases, the Court has proved unwilling to force Americans to abandon traditional practices. In Town of Greece v. Galloway, the Court held that it did not violate the Establishment Clause for people giving a prayer before a town meeting to use language specific to their religious tradition. 17 The Court had previously ruled that legislative prayer is constitutional 18, and requiring all prayer-givers to use non-sectarian language was neither constitutionally required nor feasible. 19 Nor was the town required to engage in religious bean-counting to avoid having predominantly Christian prayer-givers since it had a nondiscrimination policy. 20 Even if you have a nondiscrimination policy, if your town is overwhelmingly peopled by Christians, most of your prayer-givers will probably be Christians, and you can still open your meetings with a prayer. Still, the providentialists are embattled. The secularists have been the aggressors and often use the courts, corporations, public officials from other jurisdictions, the news media, and social media mobs to impose policies that lack democratic support in the affected communities, either through court orders or by bullying public officials into submission. Many Americans would simply like to be left alone to follow their traditional practices regarding the public expression of religious sentiments, but are stymied by collaboration between secularist elites who enforce a sort of heckler s veto against the majority in an unfashionable community. Yes, the Constitution protects the rights of minorities, but it also protects the rights of the majority. It may be far better to minimize the number of disputes that are elevated to Constitutional confrontation, and instead allow the democratic process to work out compromises at the local level. Religious believers have also been put at a disadvantage by the secularist contention that religious reasons for supporting particular policies are per se inadmissible. This represents an embrace of Rawls idea that only public reason, that is, reasons that are not based on a comprehensive doctrine such as religion, may be used in political discourse. 21 Only public reason may be used, Rawls says, even if appealing to reasons rooted in a comprehensive doctrine would persuade fellow citizens to share your position, 22 unless appealing to reasons rooted in religion advances preferred policies. 23 This disingenousness is characteristic of much public discourse 17 Town of Greece, N.Y. v. Galloway, 134 S.Ct (2014). 18 Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983). 19 Town of Greece, 134 S.Ct. at Id. at John Rawls, POLITICAL LIBERALISM (2005). 22 See id. at Id. at 251.

58 48 Peaceful Coexistence Report today. Political positions rooted in moral judgments opposed by secularists are invalid, especially anything to do with sexual liberty, but it is perfectly fine if moral judgments are invoked to support their favored political positions, such as amnesty for illegal immigrants. A version of this approach seems to have been adopted by political and cultural elites. This of course tips the scales in their favor. Defining public reason as encompassing only presently accepted general beliefs and forms of reasoning found in common sense, and the methods and conclusions of science when these are not controversial while explicitly excluding reasons based in religion means that what seems like common sense to the secular and what seems like common sense to the religious can be two very different things. Yet only the former is regarded as legitimate in public debates. For example, a devout Christian may regard it as common sense that marriage is between a man and a woman, in large part because that is the pattern laid out in the Bible. A secularist may consider it common sense that marriage is between two people who share a deep emotional attachment, and point to the benefits of having someone to care for you in illness, etc. And indeed, as mentioned above, secularism has its own commandments and shibboleths, though it is rarely viewed that way by its adherents. 24 Yet only one of these two versions of common sense is regarded as legitimate by our political system, even if the former would be persuasive to a large number of people. 25 In some cases, courts have even implied that because some people favored a particular policy for religious reasons, the entire enterprise is tainted by animus and thus is unconstitutional. 26 In fact, there are really two On this account the abolitionists and the leaders of the civil rights movement did not go against the ideal of public reason; or rather, they did not provided they thought, or on reflection would have thought (as they certainly could have thought), that the comprehensive reasons they appealed to were required to give sufficient strength to the political conception to be subsequently realized.... The abolitionists could say, for example, that they supported political values of freedom and equality for all, but that given the comprehensive doctrines they held and the doctrines current in their day, it was necessary to invoke the comprehensive grounds on which those values were widely seen to rest. Given those historical conditions, it was not unreasonable of them to act as they did for the sake of the ideal of public reason itself. 24 See supra note Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2607 (2015). [R]eligions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.... In turn, those who believe allowing same-sex marriage is proper or indeed essential, whether as a matter of religious conviction or secular belief, may engage those who disagree with their view in an open and searching debate. The Constitution, however, does not permit the State to bar same-sex couples from marriage on the same terms as accorded to couples of the opposite sex. 26 Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 704 F.Supp.2d 921, 973, 985 (N.D. Cal. 2010). Whether the Evidence Shows that Proposition 8 Enacted a Private Moral View Without Advancing a Legitimate Government Interest Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.... e. Tr. 395:14-18 (Chauncey: Many clergy in churches considered homosexuality a sin, preached against it and have led campaigns against gay rights.);

59 Commissioners Statements 49 clashing moralities in play, especially in regard to same-sex marriage, but the courts choose one over another while pretending to be neutral. 27 It is permissible for a pro-same-sex marriage campaign to be animated by the belief that same-sex marriage is morally good, but it is impermissible for a pro-traditional marriage campaign to be animated by the belief that same-sex marriage is morally wrong. 28 As Steven Smith notes, religious believers have tried to adapt to this change in public discourse, but realize that many of their beliefs defy glib secular rationalization. 29 Finding these secular rationales implausible, advocates on the secular side often respond by accusing their opponents of obscurantism and hypocrisy: the ostensible secular rationales are dismissed as mere pretexts for religious reasons or motivations. Justices themselves sometimes join in the demonizing and the mockery. 30 Naturally this leads to resentment and a sense that the game is rigged. g. PX2853 Proposition 8 Local Exit Polls Election Center 2008, CNN at 8: 84 percent of people who attended church weekly voted in favor of Proposition 8; r. Tr. 2676:8-2678:24 (Miller: Miller agrees with his former statement that the religious characteristics of California's Democratic voters explain why so many Democrats voted for Barack Obama and also for Proposition 8.). 27 Id. at A Private Moral View That Same-Sex Couples are Inferior to Opposite-Sex Couples is Not a Proper Basis for Legislation In the absence of a rational basis, what remains of proponents case is an inference, amply supported by evidence in the record, that Proposition 8 was premised on the belief that same-sex couples simply are not as good as opposite-sex couples. Whether that belief is based on moral disapproval of homosexuality, animus toward gays and lesbians or simply a belief that a relationship between a man and woman is inherently better than a relationship between two men and two women, this belief is not a proper basis on which to legislate. [citations omitted] 28 Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 704 F.Supp.2d 921, (N.D. Cal. 2010). See also U.S. v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675, (2013) (Kennedy, J.) (characterizing New York s decision to permit same-sex marriage as a proper exercise of its sovereign power that For same-sex couples who wished to be married, the State acted to give their lawful conduct a lawful status.... deemed by the State worthy of dignity, whereas Congress and President Clinton s decision to, for federal purposes, define marriage as opposite-sex was intended to impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma because its purpose was protecting the traditional moral teachings reflected in heterosexualonly marriage laws. [citations omitted]). 29 Smith, supra note 9, at 126. And indeed, it seems likely that religious citizens, at least when in litigating posture, are sometimes less than forthcoming about their deeper reasons. This reticence occurs under duress, however, because under current constitutional understandings, it is only by adopting a secularist vocabulary that these citizens are able to participate in the constitutional conversation at all. And even as they attempt to defend their positions in constitutionally admissible terms, believers in the providential conception often feel beleaguered and alienated. How can it be, they wonder, that the Constitution somehow forbids officials and citizens today to assert and act on the same sorts of openly religious rationales that are so evident on the face of the celebrated writings, speeches, and enactments of Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln? Thus Harvard law professor Noah Feldman observes that constitutional decisions marginalizing or banning religion from public places have managed to alienate millions of people who are also sincerely committed to an inclusive American project. 30 Id. at 125.

60 50 Peaceful Coexistence Report This sense of resentment is fed by the memory that for much of American history, religious reasons and arguments were freely used in political discourse. Rawls argues that during the Founding, Reconstruction, and the New Deal, all three seem to rely on, and only on, the political values of public reason. 31 Yet earlier, Rawls himself says that the limits of public reason do not apply only in official forums, but rather to all political discourse by citizens. 32 Using that definition, how can one claim that public reason alone was used during the Civil War and Reconstruction? Reconstruction would not have taken place absent the Civil War, and absent a consensus formed in the North during the Civil War that slavery was evil. This consensus likely would not have existed absent the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, who not only invoked religious imagery in his oratory, but made theological arguments. Unwilling to cede much ground here, but also unwilling to distance himself from Lincoln, Rawls argues that Lincoln s many actions referencing or appealing to God either [do] not violate public reason... since what he says has no implications on constitutional essentials or matters of basic justice. Or whatever implications it might have could surely be supported firmly by the values of public reason.. 33 Rawls is a dean of modern liberalism. Yet even his attempt to explain why American public discourse must now be secularized when it was not so in the past collapses in an unconvincing mess that amounts to, Religion can only legitimately be invoked when it is helpful to my positions. In this respect he has many devout disciples among the American legal caste. Furthermore, an objective reading of Lincoln s actions and speeches does not support Rawls position that those actions and speeches did not affect constitutional essentials [nor] matters of basic justice. For example: [A]t about the same time that Lincoln wrote this meditation, he offered a specific reading of providence to guide a course of action, evidently something he had not done before and would not do again. In September 1862, after the battle of Antietam provided just enough good news for Lincoln to move against slavery in the Confederate states, he explained to his cabinet how he was confirmed in this decision. Here are the notes that Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells recorded at the time: He had made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the approaching battle, he would consider it an indication of divine will and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation. It might be thought strange that he had in this way submitted the disposal of matters when the way was not clear to his mind what he should do. God had decided this 31 Political Liberalism at Id. at Id. at 254.

61 Commissioners Statements 51 question in favor of the slaves. He was satisfied that it was right, was confirmed and strengthened in this action by the vow and results. 34 Lincoln s decision to free the southern slaves should not be considered as distinctly separate from the establishment of the 13 th Amendment. In that respect, the decision affected both constitutional essentials and basic justice. His September 1862 decision to free the Confederate slaves, ultimately resulting in the Emancipation Proclamation - which he must have known would likely make it impossible to come to a peaceful rapprochement with the Confederacy - was a sharp departure from his August 1862 letter to Horace Greeley. In that letter, he wrote, If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. 35 Perhaps this was simply Lincoln s effort to pacify the public. Yet in making a momentous decision that would in some way signify that the war would be a fight to the death, Lincoln gave his Cabinet a providential explanation for his decision. This was not just a discussion between two citizens as to the right course of action (and Rawls thinks even that should be governed by public reason). This was a decision made by the highest elected official in the land in his official capacity - the paradigmatic example of when public reason should be used. It involved a matter of basic justice and would affect constitutional essentials. In Rawls s mind, Lincoln should have relied upon public reason. And Lincoln did not. Surely the fact that perhaps the greatest American president relied on a divine explanation for a decision that began to commit the United States to emancipation for all is as significant as what senators said or did not say during debates over the 13 th Amendment. Furthermore, Lincoln did not limit his meditation on the relationship between God and political decisions to private conversations. An inaugural address is as public an exercise of political discourse as one can imagine. But Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address does not limit itself to common sense and generally accepted scientific beliefs. It is an explicitly theological meditation on the evil of slavery and the mystery of divine will and divine judgment. Especially when addressed to a deeply religious people who searched for a theological explanation for the bloodshed 36, Lincoln s words could not fail to move his listeners. Rawls appears to be somewhat at a loss in regard to the Second Inaugural, and eventually throws up his hands and essentially says, It didn t matter. But was that the case? Although the 13 th Amendment had been passed by Congress when Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address, it had not yet been ratified by three-quarters of the states, including several states that at the time 34 Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as Theological Crisis 89 (2006). 35 Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, Friday, August 22, 1862, available at 36 See generally Mark A. Noll, THE CIVIL WAR AS THEOLOGICAL CRISIS (2006).

62 52 Peaceful Coexistence Report of the speech were still members of the Confederacy and at war with the Union. Ratification would not be announced until December 18, Under the circumstances, it strains credulity to think that Lincoln was not both offering a meditation on the horror of war and trying to convince Americans, using explicitly theological language, that slavery must be abolished. Why expend so much ink discussing Rawls, public reason, and American history? First, because the clash between religious belief and secularism underpins many of the conflicts discussed in this report. Second, because delegitimizing the use of religiously-based moral beliefs in legislation and public discourse is used as a trump by secularists to achieve their policy goals when they lack majority support. Third, because even the primary proponent of public reason is unable to convincingly demonstrate that public reason as he initially defined it is standard in American history, and thus demonstrates that it is only an exercise of political will to be used as suits his ideological heirs. II. Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC A primary area of recurring conflict between nondiscrimination norms and religious liberty involves employment discrimination. In 2012, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. 37 The case involved a Lutheran church and school, called Hosanna-Tabor, and a former teacher named Cheryl Perich. Perich had been a called teacher at the school, which meant that she had to engage in theological studies, pass an examination, be approved by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod [LCMS] (the denomination to which Hosanna-Tabor belonged) and be called by a church congregation. After being called, called teachers are referred to as Minister of Religion, Commissioned. 38 Her duties included leading prayer in her classroom, teaching religion, and occasionally leading chapel services. Unfortunately, after serving as a called teacher for several years, Perich developed narcolepsy and was unable to work from June 2004 through February In the meantime, the school had been forced to hire another teacher to take Perich s place. Perich refused to resign and threatened to sue, despite the school having no position for her and the congregation having agreed to pay part of her health insurance premiums in return for her resignation. The threat to sue violated LCMS doctrine regarding Christians settling disputes amongst themselves, rather than going to the civil authorities. 37 The school board informed her by letter that she might be fired. As grounds for termination, the letter cited Perich s insubordination and disruptive behavior as well as the damage she had done to her working relationship with the school by threatening to take legal action. The congregation voted to rescind Perich s call and she was fired Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694,701 (2012). 38 Id. at 700.

63 Commissioners Statements 53 This is where the conflict between religious liberty and nondiscrimination norms occurred. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC] sued on Perich s behalf, alleging that because Perich had threatened to sue the school under the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] and then been fired her firing was retaliatory and violated the ADA. 39 In response, Hosanna-Tabor argued that the ministerial exception applied, and therefore the suit was barred by the First Amendment because the claims at issue concerned the employment relationship between a religious institution and one of its ministers. Perich was a minister, and she had been fired for a religious reason namely, her threat to sue the Church violated the Synod s belief that Christians should resolve their disputes internally. 40 The EEOC argued that Employment Division v. Smith prohibited the suit from being barred by the Free Exercise Clause because nondiscrimination laws, including the ADA, are neutral rules of general applicability. 41 The EEOC also argued there was no ministerial exception available under the Establishment Clause because Perich did not seek to be reinstated, and thus there was no threat of entanglement. 42 And even if Perich did seek to be reinstated, the EEOC said, there still would be no entanglement problem, because she could simply be reinstated as a lay teacher instead of a called teacher. 43 The EEOC further argued that no ministerial exception should be recognized, or if the Court did recognize it, it should limited to a very small class of people. 44 Perhaps worst of all, the EEOC argued that even if a church fired an employee in retaliation, but did so for a religious reason, courts should apply nondiscrimination laws to the church as they would to a secular employer. 45 The only protection available to religious groups was that enjoyed by all other groups, religious and secular. 46 These were extreme positions. Although the Supreme 39 Brief for the Federal Respondent at 8, Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012) (No ). 40 Hosanna-Tabor, 132 S.Ct. at Brief for the Federal Respondent at 11, Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012) (No ). 42 Id. at Id. at Brief for the Federal Respondent at 14-15, Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012) (No ). 45 Id. at 37. Merely proffering a religious reason for terminating an employee does not, moreover, invariably raise entanglement concerns. For example, when a religious employer acknowledges that it retaliated against an employee but claims it did so for a religious reason, there is no risk of entanglement. The court will not have to evaluate church doctrine, assess the centrality of the employer s religious belief, or resolve a theological dispute in order to adjudicate the case. The court can accept the employer s articulation of its religious reasons for retaliation but nevertheless conclude that the employer is bound by Smith to follow generally applicable prohibitions on such conduct. 46 Hosanna-Tabor, 132 S.Ct. at 706.

64 54 Peaceful Coexistence Report Court had never ruled on the existence of a ministerial exception, ten state supreme courts and twelve federal circuit courts had recognized it in the previous forty years 47 The government s arguments demonstrate the extent to which the EEOC failed to respect the autonomy of religious groups, and how ambitious is its vision for the reach of antidiscrimination laws. Had the EEOC prevailed, it would have energetically applied the nondiscrimination statutes to require religious groups who had fired ministers like Perich to reinstate those ministers in lay positions. Given the EEOC s energy and ambition regarding the scope of the antidiscrimination laws, it likely would have extended the enforcement of the antidiscrimination laws even beyond those bounds envisioned in its brief. 48 Fortunately for the cause of religious liberty, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the EEOC s arguments and affirmed the existence of the ministerial exception. The ministerial exception is based in both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. It is based in the Establishment Clause because it implicates internal church governance and a church s selection of its ministers. 49 It is grounded in the Free Exercise Clause because if a church cannot decide who its minister will be, it barely has any free exercise rights at all. The Court also determined that given all the facts Perich was a minister for purposes of the ministerial exception. 50 This determination was in accord with previous appellate court decisions, as Every Court of Appeals to have considered the question has concluded that the ministerial exception is not limited to the head of a religious congregation. 51 However, the Court did not announce firm rules for who would qualify as a minister. 52 I agree with Justice Thomas that courts should defer to religious institutions sincere belief that a particular employee was a minister. 53 As Justices Alito and Kagan point out, many religions do not recognize the According to the EEOC and Perich, religious organizations could successfully defend against employment discrimination claims in those circumstances [compelling ordination of women by the Catholic Church or Orthodox Jewish seminaries] by invoking the constitutional right of freedom of association a right implicit in the First Amendment. The EEOC and Perich thus see no need and no basis for a special rule grounded in the Religion Clauses themselves. The right to freedom of association is a right enjoyed by religious and secular groups alike. It follows under the EEOC s and Perich s view that the First Amendment analysis should be the same, whether the association in question is the Lutheran Church, a labor union, or a social club. 47 Windham Statement, infra at If anyone doubts the EEOC s energy and ingenuity in interpreting statutes and case law to obtain its policy preferences, I refer them to my statement in U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS, ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS AND THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION S CONVICTION RECORDS POLICY 289 (2013), available at 49 Hosanna-Tabor, 132 S.Ct. at Id. at Id. at Id. at Id. at

65 Commissioners Statements 55 concept of clergy or ordination in the same way as do Orthodox Judaism, the Catholic Church, and mainline Protestant churches. This can put small and unfamiliar religious groups at a disadvantage when invoking the ministerial exception, which led Justices Alito and Kagan to suggest that courts look at the person s function to determine if they qualify for the ministerial exception. 54 This is a reasonable suggestion, but I share Justice Thomas s concerns that so doing might excessively entangle the courts in determining the religion s beliefs, practices, and internal governance. Unsurprisingly, the Court s decision was not met with unmixed rejoicing. One witness at the Commission has argued that the Hosanna-Tabor decision subjects ministers to a clash of cultures between American society and their religious society, because they assume they have the full protection of the civil rights laws against their employer. 55 They are shocked to discover that they do not because of the ministerial exception. 56 This view seems to assume that many, perhaps even most, of these contested employment decisions are motivated by invidious discrimination rather than sincere religious beliefs. I note this assumption because it likely motivates the recommendations that the courts examine whether a proffered religious belief is sincere, that churches be required to state whether a particular employee is subject to the ministerial exception, that suits based on fraud or misrepresentation should be available if religious organizations mislead applicants, and that any religious organization that misleads employees regarding the availability of civil-rights protections loses its tax-exempt status. 57 Although it does not, and should not, affect the constitutionality of the ministerial exception, the assumption that many of these adverse employment actions are pretextual or due to invidious discrimination seems questionable and misleading. The witness implies that ministers who consider themselves victims of invidious discrimination are in fact victims and that their termination is not the result of genuine religious beliefs, differences in views, a determination that a different minister would better serve the church s mission, or simply poor job performance ( When employees lost these cases based on the ministerial exception, they felt wronged.) 58 An additional consideration is that in certain cases, what would be invidious discrimination in another context is considered a legitimate religious consideration. For example, in the Petruska case discussed below, the relevant authorities might well have thought that a male priest as chaplain was more consonant with the teachings of the Catholic Church than a female chaplain. 54 Id. at Hamilton Statement, infra at Id. at Id. at Id. at 231.

66 56 Peaceful Coexistence Report In such situations, the person s sex is a relevant consideration. Likewise, an Orthodox Jewish seminary might decline to accept a candidate whose mother was not born Jewish and did not convert to Judaism under conditions accepted by the seminary, even though in another context this would be considered discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. 59 In Rweyamamu v. Cote, an African-American Roman Catholic priest sued his bishop for racial discrimination because he had not been promoted and ultimately had been terminated 60 The Second Circuit found the suit was barred by the ministerial exception. However, Father Justinian, the plaintiff, had also appealed his bishop s decision to church authorities in Rome. Those authorities found that there were just reasons for the bishop s decision not to promote him, including complaints regarding his homilies, complaints regarding his interaction with parish staff, and the necessity of giving a unified and positive witness to the people of the parish. The authorities in Rome also found that Father Justinian was not sufficiently devoted to ministry because his work with BOCED [an independent charity] interfere[d] with [his] fulltime parochial duties. 61 The fact that additional reviewers found problems with Father Justinian s performance suggests that there may have been non-discriminatory reasons for the bishop s decisions regarding Father Justinian. In Petruska v. Gannon University, Petruska challenged her removal as University Chaplain, claiming it was because of her gender. 62 The Third Circuit disagreed, saying, Her discrimination and retaliation claims are premised upon Gannon s decision to restructure, a decision which Petruska argues was merely pretext for gender discrimination. It is clear from the face of Petruska s complaint, however, that Gannon s choice to restructure constituted a decision about spiritual functions and how those functions would be divided. 63 Furthermore, the Third Circuit allowed Petruska s breach of contract claim to proceed, which suggests that the court was not merely giving the university a blank check. 64 Churches and religious institutions must have the right to choose their own ministers, even for reasons that may seem discriminatory (for example, all Roman Catholic bishops must resign their jurisdictions at age 72). 65 While instances 59 This hypothetical is based on a case involving the Jewish Free School in London in which a boy was denied admission because his mother had converted to Judaism under procedures the school did not recognize as valid. The child s parents sued the school, claiming racial discrimination, see Riazat Butt, Jewish school racial discrimination case goes to supreme court, THE GUARDIAN, Oct. 26, 2009, available at 60 Rweyamamu v. Cote, 520 F.3d 198 (2 nd Cir. 2008). 61 Id. at Petruska v. Gannon University, 462 F.3d 294, at 307 (3 rd Cir. 2006). 63 Id. at Id. at Bishops and Their Ministry, The Diocese of Milwaukee, available at

67 Commissioners Statements 57 of truly invidious discrimination undoubtedly occur, they likely occur far less frequently than the statement implies. Why is the ministerial exception important and why should it bar the application of antidiscrimination laws to a religious institution s selection of ministers? It is important because as Americans, we believe religious freedom is important, and if religious freedom means anything, it must mean the right to select your own minister. Furthermore, religious exercise is not something that people usually do in isolation. They form groups to worship God and to observe His dictates in every aspect of their lives. Their religious institutions must be free to reflect their religious beliefs, including through their selection of ministers, even if those beliefs clash with broader society. That includes using selection criteria that may be impermissible in other contexts. Professor Marci Hamilton, a hearing witness, objects to the clash of cultures that occurs when general American society adheres to one view about discrimination and religious groups adhere to another. But a clash of cultures may benefit society by preserving the diversity of religious voices that serve as an authority that competes with the state. 66 As Professor Mark DeGirolami pointed out, Conflict is an essential and deep feature of our society both unavoidable and actually desirable, since its source is our different backgrounds, different outlooks, and different memories. 67 This conflict partly manifests itself in people s beliefs about the ultimate truth of a particular religion and their decision to follow that religion s precepts. As Professor Michael Helfand writes, religious institutions allow people to pursue what they believe to be the good life in the sense of pursuing those goods conducive to human flourishing and to consider what the good life is in concert with others. 68 We can often better work through and advance our religious beliefs when we join with others in religious institutions than we can as individuals. Yet these institutions have independent value and importance, and are not reducible to the rights and interests of their members and employees. 69 Refusing to second-guess religious institutions 66 Eric Metaxas, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 1 (2013) (on file with the Commission). Today we often hear that it [wall of separation between church and state] means that the state needs to be protected from religion, and that religion should have no place in government or society. Jefferson and the Founders thought the opposite. They knew that the State was always tempted to take over everything including the religious side of people s lives. So they put a protection in the Constitution that the government could not favor any religion over another and could not prohibit the free exercise of religion. They wanted churches and religions to be protected from the government from Leviathan. Why? Because they knew that what people believed and their freedom to live out and practice one s most deeply held beliefs was at the very heart of this radical and fragile experiment they had just launched into the world. 67 DeGirolami Statement, infra at Helfand Statement, infra at Richard W. Garnett, Do Churches Matter? Toward an Institutional Understanding of the Religion Clauses, 53 VILL. L. REV. 273, (2008).

68 58 Peaceful Coexistence Report selection of ministers allows these institutions to flourish and prevents the state from muddying their distinct message. 70 Civil society is healthier when it is populated by religious institutions that serve as a counterweight to the authority of the state and that turn their adherents attention to higher things. [T]he existence and independence of religious institutions-self-defining, selfgoverning, self-directing institutions-are needed, as John Courtney Murray put it, to check the encroachments of secular power and preserve [the] immunities of our basic human things. 71 That competing authority is why religious groups have historically had an uneasy relationship with the state. When Henry VIII could not persuade the Catholic Church to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he decided that the best course of action was to establish his own church-quite literally his own church, with compliant clergymen selected by him. Those who remained faithful to the Catholic Church reminded Henry of the irritating competing authority, and so had their churches and monasteries destroyed (which conveniently allowed Henry to seize their assets) and in some cases were killed, the most famous martyrs being the now-canonized Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. As hearing witness Lori Windham said, the reason we must have a robust ministerial exception is because we must allow religious groups to choose the people who will carry their message. A robust ministerial exception is one way of protecting religious groups from government overreach. 72 Even the selection of a speaker is a message, as Henry VIII well knew when he stocked his newly created church with his supporters and executed Bishop Fisher. The ability to choose your own ministers tells society and the state what you believe God requires, and what God requires may well conflict with prevailing mores, whether that is that Jews may only marry Jews, that priests must be celibate men, or that religious school teachers must adhere to churchdetermined standards of behavior Here I part company from Professor Helfand, who encourages courts to engage in determining whether a purportedly religion-based employment decision is a pretext for invidious discrimination; see Helfand Statement at Garnett, supra note 69 at John Rawls, POLITICAL LIBERALISM 221, n. 8 (2005). [W]e think of liberty of conscience as protecting the individual against the church. This is an example of the protection that basic rights and liberties secure for individuals generally. But equally, liberty of conscience and other liberties such as freedom of association protect churches from the intrusions of government and from other powerful associations. Both associations and individuals need protection.... It is incorrect to say that liberalism focuses solely on the rights of individuals; rather, the rights it recognizes are to protect associations, smaller groups, and individuals, all from one another in an appropriate balance specified by its guiding principles of justice. 73 Windham Statement, infra at

69 Commissioners Statements 59 III. Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty From its earliest years, orthodox Christianity has regarded sexual relationships involving people other than a man and woman married to each other as deviations from the moral law. 74 This includes same-sex sexual relationships as well as sexual relationships between unmarried opposite-sex partners. Furthermore, orthodox Christianity teaches that the state cannot simply wave a magic wand and transform same-sex relationships into marriages. 75 They believe that marriage has certain necessary characteristics, that this nature was established by God but is accessible to reason, and other romantic attachments, no matter how strongly felt, simply are not marriage. 76 This is the conjugal view of marriage. This view is in conflict with what some call the revisionist view, which regards marriage as essentially one s strongest emotional attachment. 77 The Supreme Court majority recently enshrined the revisionist view in law through 74 See, e.g., Matt. 5:31, I Cor. 5:1-5, 6: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Supreme Court Decision on Marriage A Tragic Error Says President of Catholic Bishops Conference, June 26, 2015 ( Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remain unchanged and unchangeable.... It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage. ), available at Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, ERLC President Russell Moore Responds to SCOTUS Ruling to Legalize Same- Sex Marriage, June 26, 2015 ( I am a conscientious dissenter from this ruling handed down by the Court today, believing, along with millions of others, that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman and that it is improper for the Court to redefine an institution it did not invent in the first place.), available at The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Synod president responds to SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling, June 26, 2015 ( Today, the Supreme Court has imposed same-sex marriage upon the whole nation.... Five justices cannot determine natural or divine law. ), available at 76 Sherif Gergis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George, WHAT IS MARRIAGE? MAN AND WOMAN: A DEFENSE (2013) What we have come to call the gay marriage debate is not directly about homosexuality, but about marriage. It is not about whom to let marry, but about what marriage is. It is a pivotal state in a decades-long struggle between two views of the meaning of marriage. The conjugal view of marriage has long informed the law along with the literature, art, philosophy, religion, and social practice of our civilization. It is a vision of marriage as a bodily as well as an emotional and spiritual bond, distinguished thus by its comprehensiveness, which is, like all love, effusive: flowing out into the wide sharing of family life and ahead to lifelong fidelity. In marriage, so understood, the world rests its hope and finds ultimate renewal. A second, revisionist view has informed the marriage policy reforms of the last several decades. It is a vision of marriage as, in essence, a loving emotional bond, one distinguished by its intensity a bond that needn t point beyond the partners, in which fidelity is ultimately subject to one s own desires. In marriage, so understood, partners seek emotional fulfillment, and remain as long as they find it. 77 Id. at 12.

70 60 Peaceful Coexistence Report its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges 78, with Chief Justice Roberts s dissent articulating the conjugal view. 79 This division over the nature of marriage has consequences. People who believe that the conjugal nature of marriage was established by God resist condoning same-sex marriages. This sets up a conflict when the state establishes civil same-sex marriage. A religious group or religious person s attempt to differentiate between heterosexual and homosexual married couples exposes them to the threat of running afoul of either sexual orientation or marital status nondiscrimination laws. For example, some religious organizations believe that they cannot in good conscience place children for adoption or in foster care with same-sex couples. (Again, this almost always involves Christian organizations.) Many Christian adoption agencies, such as those operated by Catholic Charities, only place children with couples who are married. They do this both because they believe that unmarried cohabitation is wrong and that a home with a married mother and father is the best environment for children. Until very recently, the belief that children need both a mother and a father was uncontroversial. Yet even before Obergefell, same-sex marriages and civil unions had placed these religious adoption agencies on a collision course with the state. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois writes: [T]his intended religious protection was completely dismissed by the state after the [civil union] bill was signed into law by Governor Patrick Quinn. Almost immediately, the state accused Catholic Charities of being in violation of the new law because of our opposition to the placement of children in the homes of unmarried couples who are living together, regardless of their sexual orientation. We were told that if we did not immediately expand our religious definition of marriage to include civil union couples, the state would dismantle the entire Catholic Charities foster care and adoption network across Illinois... Every attempt we made to explain our position 78 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2600 (2015) (Kennedy, J.) ( Marriage responds to the universal fear that a lonely person might call out only to find no one there. It offers the hope of companionship and understanding and assurance that while both still live there will be someone to care for the other. ). 79 Id. at 2613 (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). This universal definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman is no historical coincidence. Marriage did not come about as a result of a political movement, discovery, disease, war, religious doctrine, or any other moving force of world history - and certainly not as a result of a prehistoric decision to exclude gays and lesbians. It arose in the nature of things to meet a vital need: ensuring that children are conceived by a mother and father committed to raising them in the stable conditions of a lifelong relationship.

71 Commissioners Statements 61 and seek a compromise with the state was immediately dismissed surrender your religious beliefs in this matter or we will eradicate your programs. 80 In the end, Illinois Catholic Charities foster care and adoption programs were eradicated. 81 Many of Catholic Charities offices closed. 82 Likewise, Catholic Charities in Boston and Washington, D.C. ended their foster care and adoption services because they would be required to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. 83 Hearing witness Ed Whelan noted that these conflicts would become more common as more states adopted same-sex marriage. 84 Events have overtaken this long-delayed report, and Justice Kennedy recently made same-sex marriage the law of the land for the foreseeable future. These conflicts will become much more pronounced and arise more quickly than anyone thought possible in March It is possible, perhaps even probable, that in the near future there will be no orthodox Christian organizations partnering with the government to provide adoption and foster care services in the United States. 85 Similarly, some religious service providers such as photographers and bakers believe that they cannot in good conscience help celebrate a same-sex wedding. There are at least two possible reasons why a religious believer could think they could not help celebrate a same-sex wedding. First, in assisting in celebrating a same-sex wedding, they are treating it as a wedding, bearing witness to the world through their actions that this relationship is a marriage. Because they do not 80 Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 5 (2013) (on file with the Commission). 81 Id. at Id. at See Whelan Statement at 271; see also William Wan, Same-sex marriage leads Catholic Charities to adjust benefits, WASHINGTON POST, Mar. 2, 2010, available at 84 Whelan Statement, infra at Paul Coleman, Memorandum of Alliance Defending Freedom to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 7 (Apr. 19, 2013) (on file with the Commission). Faith-based (and in particular Catholic) adoption agencies have now been closed in England. When the Sexual Orientation Regulations were passed in 2007, any agency that refused to place children with homosexual parents would be in breach of the law, would lose funding and would be forced to close down or remove its religious ethos. This was despite Catholic adoption agencies being widely recognised as some of the best in the country. In 2007, there were fourteen faith-based adoption agencies working throughout the UK, accounting for a third of adoptions within the voluntary sector. Most of these have now had to remove their religious ethos and become secularized or have had to withdraw their services completely. In April 2011 the Charity Tribunal found against the last remaining Catholic adoption agency following a High Court decision. The tribunal stated that religious conviction in the sphere of personal belief is protected in both domestic and European equality law, so that acts of devotion, worship, and prayer (including ceremonies) are exempt from equality obligations. However, the Tribunal went on to state that there is an essential distinction between private acts of worship such as blessings and the provision of a public service such as an adoption agency.

72 62 Peaceful Coexistence Report believe this relationship is a marriage and that the purported marriage is invalid because of a standard of absolute truth regarding the nature of marriage that is external to all people, their involvement in the celebration is an offense twice over. It is an offense against their own conscience, because they are testifying to something they do not believe to be true. And it is an offense against absolute truth itself, because they believe the same-sex marriage is a falsehood about the nature of marriage, and they are assisting in perpetrating that falsehood. 86 The second reason why a religious believer might think they could not help celebrate a same-sex wedding is orthodox Christianity s prohibition of same-sex sexual activity. There are of course some outliers that no longer adhere to this teaching, but it was largely unchallenged Christian teaching for 2000 years and is still adhered to by churches whose members comprise the majority of Christians in the United States and worldwide. Every conception of marriage assumes that marriage includes sexual intercourse. A same-sex marriage therefore presumes sexual intercourse. And a religious believer asked to contribute to the wedding celebration in some way, whether through providing a cake or taking wedding photographs, is helping to celebrate something they believe to be a transgression of divine law. Because they believe they do not have the ability to change the divine law, they are torn between obeying the civil law and obeying the moral law. 87 On the other hand, people in same-sex partnerships consider their sexual orientation an integral part of who they are. Furthermore, they consider expressing their sexual orientation to be an essential part of their identity, and like most people, they want to find someone they love and who loves them in return. 88 When someone refuses to help celebrate their wedding, it is a moral judgment regarding their behavior. In some instances, they believe the refusal infringes on their dignity as a person. 86 It might be objected at this point that religious believers are inconsistent - as mentioned above, orthodox Christianity prohibits any sexual activity outside of monogamous, opposite-sex marriage, yet many of these vendors customers doubtless cohabitate before marriage. The constitutional answer is that religious beliefs need not be consistent to be protected, see Thomas v. Review Bd. of Ind. Employment Sec. Div., 450 U.S. 707, 715 (1981). As a theological matter, the vendors may well think that although a marriage preceded by cohabitation is less than ideal, the marriage regularizes the couple s status, and thus participating in the wedding is licit. However, I would oppose any efforts to force an objecting vendor to serve a cohabitating client (or a previously-divorced client, or a client who stated that he was entering an open marriage, and so on). 87 Michael Stokes Paulsen, Is Religious Freedom Irrational? 112 MICH. L. REV. 1043, (2014). [T]he religious believer is (accepting the premises on which religious freedom rests) caught between the conflicting commands of dueling sovereigns God and Man, church and state. This is a true conflict of laws situation; and for the religious believer, the commands of God categorically must have priority [citations omitted]. 88 Feldblum, supra note 2, at [G]ay people of all individuals should recognize the injustice of forcing a person to disaggregate belief or identity from practice. It seemed to me the height of disingenuousness, absurdity, and indeed, disrespect to tell someone it is permissible to be gay, but not permissible to engage in gay sex. What do they think being gay means?

73 Commissioners Statements 63 Can the competing interests of religious believers and same-sex couples be reconciled? It is tempting to cast the debate as a contest between two competing liberty rights - the right of samesex couples to manifest their sexuality, and the right of religious people to manifest their religious beliefs. 89 Apparently this is how Justice Kennedy views the conflict. But it is not so straightforward. On the one hand, the free exercise of religion is a constitutionally enumerated right. But it is only within the past few decades that sexual behavior has been found lurking in the outer fringes of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even in a narcissistic age, pace Justice Kennedy, it is difficult to believe that the existence of a constitutional right to sexual liberty escaped the notice of founders, framers, and constitutional scholars for over 200 years. The sudden discovery of its existence in the latter half of the 20 th century suggests that sexual liberty s status as a constitutional right is dubious, and is based more in the Court s (and sometimes the public s) enthusiasm for the idea than in the Constitution. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof is dramatically clearer and more direct than This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment s reservation of rights to the people. 90 The flailing about to find a constitutional basis for sexual liberty, which continues to this day, suggests that no such basis exists. Until Obergefell, in the specific context of same-sex sexual activity, as Justice Scalia noted, the Court still had not declared such activity a fundamental right, which admittedly may reflect an odd reticence on the Court s part rather than principle. 91 In Obergefell itself, Justice Kennedy still could not decide where the fundamental right to same-sex marriage is grounded, settling upon an 89 Brownstein Statement, infra at 177 ( I suggest that the right of same-sex couples to marry and religious liberty rights share a common foundation as important personal autonomy rights ). 90 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 153 (1973); see also Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Penn. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 951(1992) (Rehnquist, C.J., dissenting). We have held that a liberty interest protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment will be deemed fundamental if it is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. These expressions admittedly are not precise, but our decisions implementing this notion of fundamental rights do not afford any more elaborate basis on which to base such a classification. [citations omitted]. 91 Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 586 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (2003). Most of the rest of today s opinion has no relevance to its actual holding that the Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its application to petitioners under rational-basis review. Though there is discussion of fundamental proposition[s], and fundamental decisions, nowhere does the Court s opinion declare that homosexual sodomy is a fundamental right under the Due Process Clause; nor does it subject the Texas law to the standard of review that would be appropriate (strict scrutiny) if homosexual sodomy were a fundamental right. Thus, while overruling the outcome of Bowers, the Court leaves strangely untouched its central legal conclusion: Respondent would have us announce... a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy. This we are quite unwilling to do. Instead the Court simply describes petitioners conduct as an exercise of their liberty which it undoubtedly is and proceeds to apply an unheard-of form of rational-basis review that will have far-reaching implications beyond this case [citations omitted].

74 64 Peaceful Coexistence Report ad hoc hybrid of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. 92 After all, not even the most committed partisan can claim that same-sex marriage is deeply rooted in this Nation s history and tradition. 93 In the end, as even Justice Kennedy tacitly admits in his opinion, these decisions are based in the policy preferences of the Court s majority. 94 Perhaps the decisions in these cases are good public policy, but that does not mean they recognize actual constitutional rights. 95 Regardless of the dubious constitutional grounding of sexual liberty, the debate is not really about two competing constitutional rights. It is about laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status, and whether religious believers can be exempted from those laws. According to the Supreme Court s decision in Smith, neutral laws of general applicability apply to objecting religious believers. 96 In at least some cases, though, the religious believer did not object to serving homosexual customers as a general rule, and in fact had served them for years. 97 The believer only objected to helping celebrate a same-sex wedding, which the person believed would involve oneself celebrating a violation of divine law. This suggests that those who are opposed to exempting religious believers from laws forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status may be motivated by something other than an inability to obtain services due to society-wide discrimination against same-sex couples. Chai Feldblum describes a denial of services based on sexual orientation as a dignitary harm that is not alleviated even if one can easily obtain identical services elsewhere. 98 Justice 92 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, ; id. at (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). 93 Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 721 (1997). 94 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2598 ( When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed. ); id. at 2628 (Scalia, J., dissenting) ( Buried beneath the mummeries and straining-to-be-memorable passages of the opinion is a candid and startling assertion: No matter what it was the People ratified, the Fourteenth Amendment protects those rights that the Judiciary, in its reasoned judgment, thinks the Fourteenth Amendment ought to protect. ). 95 Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, (Thomas, J. dissenting) (2003). I write separately to note that the law before the Court today is... uncommonly silly. If I were a member of the Texas Legislature, I would vote to repeal it. Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources. Notwithstanding this, I recognize that as a Member of this Court I am not empowered to help petitioners and others similarly situated. My duty, rather, is to decide cases agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States. And, just like Justice Stewart, I can find [neither in the Bill of Rights nor any other part of the Constitution a] general right of privacy, or as the Court terms it today, the liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions [citations omitted]. 96 In situations involving federal action, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies, and many states have RFRAs that apply to state action. We will not discuss those situations here. 97 See infra at VI. 98 Feldblum, supra note 2 at 153.

75 Commissioners Statements 65 Kennedy uses similar language about dignitary harms in Obergefell. 99 Elevating nondiscrimination norms may smuggle something akin to Rawls concept of self-respect as a basic requirement of the just society into our constitutional order. 100 Rawls urges that the adoption of his two principles will lead to increased self-respect among individuals. He writes: Now, our self-respect normally depends upon the respect of others. Unless we feel that our endeavors are respected by them, it is difficult if not impossible for us to maintain the conviction that our ends are worth advancing.... Thus a desirable feature of a conception of justice is that it should publicly express men s respect for one another. In this way they insure a sense of their own value. 101 Furthermore, Rawls does not believe that a guarantee of basic liberties alone is sufficient for a just society. 102 Many proponents of nondiscrimination norms, knowingly or unknowingly, seem to be influenced by Rawls s thinking and therefore place a high premium on society taking an active role to protect the self-respect of individuals. The Constitution, however, is not a Rawlsian document. It establishes a system of natural liberty and is primarily concerned with formal justice. 103 If anyone relies upon the Constitution to secure for himself the respect of his 99 Obergefell 135 S.Ct. at 2604 ( Especially against a long history of disapproval of their relationships, this denial to same-sex couples of the right to marry works a grave and continuing harm. The imposition of this disability on gays and lesbians serves to disrespect and subordinate them. ). 100 I discuss Rawls here because he clearly articulates the importance of societal support of self-respect, whereas much of the public discourse surrounding nondiscrimination norms simply parrots the importance of nondiscrimination, equality, and respect without additional analysis. 101 John Rawls, A THEORY OF JUSTICE (1999). 102 Id. at (1999). In the system of natural liberty the initial distribution is regulated by the arrangements implicit in the conception of careers open to talents (as earlier defined). These arrangements presuppose a background of equal liberty (as specified by [Rawls s] first principle) and a free market economy. They require a formal equality of opportunity in that all have at least the same legal rights of access to all advantaged social positions. But since there is no effort to preserve an equality, or similarly, of social conditions, except insofar as this is necessary to preserve the requisite background institutions, the initial distribution of assets for any period of time is strongly influenced by natural and social contingencies. The existing distribution of income and wealth, say, is the cumulative effect of prior distribution of natural assets - that is, natural talents and abilities - as these have been developed or left unrealized, and their use favored or disfavored over time by social circumstances and such chance contingencies as accident and good fortune. Intuitively, the most obvious injustice of the system of natural liberty is that it permits distributive shares to be improperly influenced by these factors so arbitrary from a moral point of view.... There is no more reason to permit the distribution of income and wealth to be settled by the distribution of natural assets than by historical and social fortune. Furthermore, the principle of fair opportunity can be only imperfectly carried out, at least as long as some form of the family exists. 103 Rawls himself notes in a later work that the United States political settlement may rely on a thinner overlapping consensus than he envisions in his ideal society. See John Rawls, POLITICAL LIBERALISM 149 (2005).

76 66 Peaceful Coexistence Report fellow-citizens, he will have to content himself with equality before the law. Equality before the law is not nothing, but it is not necessarily the sort of societal respect contemplated by Rawls. Nor does it bestow societal approval upon all one s life choices and therefore build up one s selfesteem. This also raises the question whether these nondiscrimination laws are actually neutral laws of general applicability. Undoubtedly there are some service providers who would refuse to serve homosexual customers out of pure animus. The growing public acceptance, and even celebration, of gay and lesbian people suggests that this is an ever-smaller group. Furthermore, most business owners will overcome any personal distaste for someone in order to sell them goods or services. Perhaps there are large numbers of service providers and business owners who would discriminate against gays and lesbians based purely on their sexual orientation if nondiscrimination laws were not in place. But it seems unlikely, or we would frequently hear news stories from states without sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws about blatant discrimination against gay and lesbian people. Of course there is discrimination against gays and lesbians, as there is against every identifiable group, but it seems unlikely to be a societal pandemic requiring drastic action. In that case, are purportedly neutral and generally applicable laws really so? Or are purportedly neutral laws being used as a way to punish religious believers for holding unfashionable beliefs about sexual conduct? There are some indications that purportedly neutral laws are being used as a way to punish religious believers. One commenter mentioned a case involving a Vermont B&B owned by a devout Catholic couple. 104 In a good-faith attempt to comply with state law while remaining faithful to their religious beliefs, the couple would tell same-sex couples that they were willing to host their wedding festivities, but believed that marriage is between a man and a woman. The Vermont Human Rights Commission found in 2005 that this practice did not violate state antidiscrimination laws. Unfortunately, several years later an employee erroneously told a samesex couple that the B&B would not host their wedding reception. The B&B was sued. The settlement agreement stipulated that the owners believed they were in conformity with state law, but also stipulated that the owners would no longer tell customers their views on marriage. 105 Yet as Baier has suggested, a less deep consensus on the principles and rules of a workable political constitution may be sufficient for less demanding purposes and far easier to obtain. He thinks that in fact in the United States we have actually achieved something like that. So rather than supposing that the consensus reaches down to a political conception covering principles for the whole of the basic structure, a consensus may cover only certain fundamental procedural political principles for the constitution. 104 See Alliance Defending Freedom, Memorandum re Briefing on Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Religious Liberty, at 2-3 (Apr. 19, 2013) (on file with the Commission). 105 Wildflower Inn Settlement Agreement at 3(A), (B), (D) (Aug. 2, 2012), available at

77 Commissioners Statements 67 Even so, part of the settlement agreement was that they would no longer host weddings or wedding receptions for anyone. Although the owners agreed to this settlement, it would seem that the Vermont Human Rights Commission is now interpreting the Vermont Fair Housing and Accommodation Act in a way that potentially violates the First Amendment. If the owner of a public accommodation is willing to serve people with whom he disagrees, but is prohibited from telling them he disagrees with their conduct, nondiscrimination law has now overridden free speech rights. At this point, the objection might be raised that conformity is merely the price of citizenship. 106 That cannot be. The First Amendment protects the right to speak, and in most cases to act, in accord with one s beliefs. This is particularly true when one is acting out of religious conviction. Even aside from the First Amendment, there has long been a cultural understanding that religion, specifically Judaism and Christianity, have long enjoyed an influential role in the life of our country. We do not have an established religion, but the assumptions that undergird our laws, government, and culture spring from Judeo-Christian principles. 107 IV. The HHS Mandate and Religious Liberty Perhaps today s highest-profile conflict between religious liberty and nondiscrimination norms is the HHS contraception mandate. HHS promulgated regulations under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that require employers to provide employee health insurance that includes coverage for contraceptive and abortifacient drugs. One of the interesting aspects of the HHS mandate is that the religious liberty conflict is entirely a creation of HHS. The contraception mandate is not part of the Affordable Care Act s text. Congress did not create the contraceptive mandate. Rather, HHS used a provision of the ACA that requires insurance plans to include preventive care services to add a requirement that the 106 Elane Photography, LLC v. Willock, 309 P.3d 53, 80 (N.M. 2013) (Bosson, J. concurring) ( the Huguenins have to channel their conduct it is the price of citizenship. ). 107 Washington s Farewell Address, available at Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of the religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instrument of investigation in courts of justice. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

78 68 Peaceful Coexistence Report plans provide contraceptive and abortifacient drugs. 108 HHS could have opted not to include contraceptives and abortifacients as mandatory parts of insurance plans, or it could have required insurance plans to provide contraceptive drugs only when the drugs are prescribed for a noncontraceptive medical reason. But it did not adopt such a reasonable course. Instead, despite receiving tens of thousands of comments objecting to the contraceptive mandate on religious grounds during the formal comment period alone, HHS finalized the rule. 109 This series of events suggests two possibilities. One, HHS might not have realized that a significant number of religious people believe that the use of contraceptives or abortion-causing drugs (or both) is sinful, and that paying for such drugs through a healthcare plan implicates them in the sin. Nevertheless HHS did not abandon the rule when it realized that many people objected to the rule on religious grounds. Two, HHS did realize that people would object to the rule, but was determined to proceed anyway. Perhaps knowledge of the opposition added a little extra relish to adopting the rule. 110 Either way, HHS should not have proposed the rule, and should have abandoned the rule when opposition became clear. As Ed Whelan stated, By dragooning employers to be the vehicle for increasing access to contraceptives and abortifacients, the Obama administration is putting many Americans to a grave test of conscience and it is doing so gratuitously, for an end that could be easily accomplished through other means. 111 If an employer does not provide insurance that covers the drugs to which they object they face ruinous fines. The interests on the other side are not as weighty as religious liberty, despite the government s portrayal of cost-free (to the employee) contraceptives and abortifacients as benefits of great importance to health and well-being. 112 A tone of wonderment pervades the government s brief and regulations as they explain how very, very important it is that women have free contraceptives and abortifacients, as though they only just discovered that women sometimes become pregnant, and the prevention of this unlovely state of affairs is now the most pressing issue facing the nation. One hearing witness argues that the HHS mandate is necessary to assure women s equality. 113 Yet no one is preventing women from using any of these drugs or devices. 108 Group Health Plans and Health Insurance Issuers Relating to Coverage of Preventive Services Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 77 Fed. Reg (Feb. 15, 2012) (to be codified at 26 C.F.R. pt. 54, 29 C.F.R. pt. 2590, 45 C.F.R. pt. 147). 109 Id. at 8726 ( The Department received over 200,000 responses to the request for comments on the amended interim final regulations. ). 110 Whelan Statement, infra at Whelan Statement, infra at Brief for Petitioner at 13, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., No (2013). 113 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties, Mar. 22, 2013, at 91 [hereinafter Transcript ] ( Women s equality is at stake in the contraceptive cases ).

79 Commissioners Statements 69 They are free to purchase them and use them as often as they like. Their employer only asks not to be in any way involved in procuring these items, whether it is through purchasing an insurance plan that pays for them (in the case of for-profit businesses) or through delegating someone else to provide them (in the case of religious organizations). 114 Similarly, if a woman believes that insurance coverage of contraceptives and abortifacients is a great benefit to her financial wellbeing, she is free to find employment at one of the many, many employers who have no qualms about providing such things. As Professor Richard Epstein writes: A robust interpretation of freedom of association blocks the contraceptive mandate, not just for religious organizations, however defined, but for every group, regardless of its purposes or members. Any group that wants to supply contraceptive services is, of course, free to do so. But any group that opposes the mandate is free to go its separate way. In a competitive world, firms can compete by offering or denying particular benefits, without the state having to second-guess its choices. 115 The republic somehow limped along for 223 years without requiring employers to provide free contraceptives and abortifacients. In the interest of protecting religious liberty and free association, it can continue to do so. At least in the case of closely-held corporations, the Supreme Court apparently agrees. 116 a. For-Profit Businesses Essentially, two types of plaintiffs challenged the HHS mandate. The first is for-profit employers who were required to purchase insurance plans that include coverage for contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs. The second is non-profit organizations that are required to fill out a form that states that they have religious objections to providing abortioncausing drugs and contraceptives and that directs their insurance company to provide the drugs. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in two for-profit cases involving the HHS mandate. The cases involved the companies Hobby Lobby, Mardel, and Conestoga Wood. The owners of Hobby Lobby, Mardel, and Conestoga Wood objected to providing coverage for four types of 114 Robert P. George, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 3 (2016) (on file with the Commission). Lurking behind the name-calling and the efforts to stigmatize and marginalize advocates of the robust protection of conscience is a fundamental logical flaw. The gender discrimination claim presupposes that the refusal to pay for something, or to participate in something, is the legal and moral equivalent of denying a third party access to that thing. This claim is plainly false and directs attention away from the real issue, which is not a problem of access, but a desire to shift the costs and responsibilities of access to unwilling third parties who object on moral and religious grounds to, for example, the use of abortion-inducing drugs to end nascent human lives. 115 Richard A. Epstein, Rethinking the Contraceptive Mandate, DEFINING IDEAS (Feb. 10, 2014), available at Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014).

80 70 Peaceful Coexistence Report drugs and devices that may cause early abortions, including Plan B (the morning-after pill) and Ella (the week-after pill). 117 Plan B, Ella, and some IUDs can cause early abortions by preventing implantation of a human embryo. That is a scientific fact and the government has conceded it. 118 The question, then, is whether it is licit to end this nascent human life. That question may of course be answered without recourse to divine revelation but it is a moral question that many faiths take very seriously and believe affect a person s eternal destiny. Similarly, Christian churches that teach that the use of artificial contraception is a sin may seem odd and backward but their teaching rests on their understanding of the human person s relationship and duty to God and other people. 119 There is no scientific dispute. It is a purely moral and religious dispute and one in which the government has no right to pronounce judgment and no compelling interest in breaking the consciences of believers. The government argued that because of their corporate status, for-profit businesses cannot invoke RFRA. 120 They argued that RFRA protects only individuals, churches, and religious communities. 121 The text of RFRA provides: Government shall not substantially burden a person s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b) of this section. 122 In an attempt to avoid having the courts apply strict scrutiny to the challenged rule the government tried to side-step the problem by removing Hobby Lobby from the covered entities. Person is not defined in the statute, although several other terms are defined. Thus, the government argued that for-profit corporations are not persons. However, the Dictionary Act provides In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise the words person and whoever include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and 117 Brief for Respondent at 9-10, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., No (2013); Brief for Petitioners at 5, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, No (2013). 118 See Donna Harrison, M.D., Emergency Contraception Can Cause Abortion, THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE (Dec. 10, 2013), available at Brief for Petitioner at 9 n. 4, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., No (2013) ( a copper IUD possibly [prevents] implantation (of a fertilized egg in the uterus) [Plan B] may inhibit implantation by altering the endometrium [Ella] may also work by altering the endometrium in a way that may affect implantation. ). 119 Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Archbishop of Philadelphia, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 3 (2013)(on file with the Commission); see also Pope Paul VI, HUMANAE VITAE (1968), available at Brief for Petitioner at 12-13, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ). 121 Id. at U.S.C. 2000bb-1.

81 Commissioners Statements 71 joint stock companies, as well as individuals. 123 This would obviously cover for-profit corporations. 124 The government argued that the Dictionary Act did not apply in this instance, and pointed out that none of the Supreme Court s pre-smith decisions suggested that for-profit corporations could exercise religion. 125 However, the government did not present a case in which the Supreme Court said that for-profit corporations could not exercise religion. 126 Furthermore, as Justice Alito wrote, in the only pre-smith case involving a for-profit corporation, no member of the Court suggested that a for-profit corporation could not exercise religion even though the state had made the argument. 127 If the Court had adopted the government s reasoning, there would have been profound consequences, including in the area of abortion. There is no political or cultural issue that is as fiercely debated as abortion and the question of whether the Affordable Care Act would require Americans to pay for their fellow-citizens abortions was one of the primary objections to the legislation. However, during oral argument in Hobby Lobby, Justice Kennedy asked Solicitor General Verrilli if, theoretically, a for-profit corporation could be forced to pay for abortions. 128 The Solicitor General said that there were no laws on the books that would require that - in fact, it is the opposite. Under further questioning, he admitted that if the laws were changed there was, in U.S.C Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, (2014)( We see nothing in RFRA that suggests a congressional intent to depart from the Dictionary Act definition.... No known understanding of the term person includes some but not all corporations. ). See also Korte v. Sebelius, 735 F.3d 654, (7 th Cir. 2013) (Sykes, J.) Nothing in RFRA suggests the Dictionary Act s definition of person is a poor fit with the statutory scheme. A corporation is just a special form of organizational association. No one doubts that organizational associations can engage in religious practice. The government accepts that some corporations religious nonprofits have religiousexercise rights under both RFRA and the Free Exercise Clause. Indeed, the Supreme Court has enforced the RFRA rights of an incorporated religious sect. Accordingly, we take it as both conceded and noncontroversial that the use of the corporate form and the associated legal attributes of that status think separate legal personhood, limitations on owners liability, special tax treatment do not disable an organization from engaging in the exercise of religion within the meaning of RFRA (or the Free Exercise Clause, for that matter). 125 Brief for Petitioner at 21-22, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ). 126 Brief for Petitioner at 18, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ) (noting that in Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Mkt. of Mass., Inc., 336 U.S. 617 (1961), the Supreme Court expressly did not decide whether a for-profit business could exercise religion. ). 127 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, (2014). 128 Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, oral argument transcript, March 25, 2014, at 75, available at

82 72 Peaceful Coexistence Report his view, nothing in principle that would prevent for-profit corporations from being forced to pay for abortions. 129 This could well have become another area of conflict between religious liberty and nondiscrimination. As is the case with the contraceptive mandate a refusal to pay for abortion services could be recast as gender discrimination. 130 Even if this administration did not pursue such a policy a future administration might do so. The difference between forcing Hobby Lobby to pay for the morning-after pill and for a second-trimester abortion is only a matter of political will and public distaste, both of which could be overcome by a sufficiently determined administration. The government s extreme position suggests an alternative possibility for the lack of cases addressing whether for-profit corporations can exercise religion-namely, that the government has never before sought to burden the consciences of corporations and their owners and directors by requiring them to, as they see it, directly finance the destruction of innocent human life. The government never before required almost all employers to provide health benefits to employees, and decreed exactly what those health benefits must be. One of the ways a diverse society survives is by giving citizens space to organize life as they see fit. When the government tells millions of business owners that they must provide a one-size-fits-all health benefits package, regardless of their religious objections, the government has removed much of the flexibility that allowed people to live their lives peacefully. That may be why there are not more cases about the free exercise rights of for-profit businesses. Regardless of why there were not earlier cases about the free exercise rights of for-profit corporations, a majority of the Supreme Court was unimpressed by the government s arguments. Justice Alito wrote for the majority that there is no indication in the text of RFRA that Congress intended to depart from the Dictionary Act, and the Dictionary Act encompasses corporations. 131 Furthermore: HHS concedes that a nonprofit corporation can be a person within the meaning of RFRA... This concession effectively dispatches any argument that the term person as used in RFRA does not reach the closely held corporations involved in 129 Id. at Robert P. George, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 3 (2013)(on file with the Commission). Lurking behind the name-calling and the efforts to stigmatize and marginalize advocates of the robust protection of conscience is a fundamental logical flaw. The gender discrimination claim presupposes that the refusal to pay for something, or to participate in something, is the legal and moral equivalent of denying a third party access to that thing. This claim is plainly false and directs attention away from the real issue, which is not a problem of access, but a desire to shift the costs and responsibilities of access to unwilling third parties who object on moral and religious grounds to, for example, the use of abortion-inducing drugs to end nascent human lives. 131 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, (2014).

83 Commissioners Statements 73 these cases. No known understanding of the term person includes some but not all corporations. 132 HHS also claimed that for-profit corporations are not protected by RFRA because they do not exercise religion. 133 The majority found this argument unpersuasive as well. After all, HHS has conceded that non-profit corporations could exercise religion. 134 And in Braunfeld v. Brown, the Court assumed that Jewish merchants had a cognizable free exercise claim even though they operated for-profit businesses. 135 Surely HHS cannot truly believe that merely changing the form of a business from a sole proprietorship or partnership to a corporation extinguishes the owners free exercise rights. 136 More importantly, corporations may pursue any lawful purpose permitted under the laws of the state in which they are incorporated. 137 Simply being for-profit corporations does not require them to seek to maximize profit and ignore all other concerns. Just as a corporation can sell fair-trade coffee and make a smaller profit in furtherance of the owners social justice commitments, Hobby Lobby can pursue various initiatives in furtherance of its owners Christian commitments. 138 Although not mentioned in Justice Alito s opinion, the Court addressed a similar question in Citizens United v. FEC. 139 If a corporation can speak, why can t it exercise religion? 140 The government argued in Citizens United that the government had a particular interest in regulating the expenditures of corporations because of the benefits of the corporate form. 141 The Court rejected this argument. The ability to exercise one s First Amendment rights does not turn on the question of corporate form. Justice Kennedy wrote, The First Amendment does not permit 132 Id. at Id. at Id. at Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599 (1961). 136 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2767, (2014). 137 Id. at Id. at 2771 ( If for-profit corporations may pursue such worthy objectives, there is no apparent reason why they may not further religious objectives as well. ). 139 Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010). 140 I realize, as Eugene Volokh writes, that there are distinctions between the two lines of cases. Eugene Volokh, SEBELIUS V. HOBBY LOBBY: CORPORATE RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES, (2014). 141 Brief for Appellee at 15, Citizens United v. Fed. Elec. Comm., 558 U.S. 310 (2010) (No ). Congress has historically imposed particularly stringent limits on the electoral advocacy of corporations and labor unions. Those restrictions reflect a legislative judgment that the special characteristics of the corporate structure require particularly careful regulation, and this Court has consistently respect[ed] that judgment. FEC v. Beaumont, 539 U.S. 146, 155 (2003) (quoting FEC v. National Right to Work Comm., 459 U.S. 197, (1982). In particular, because of the numerous advantages that the corporate form confers, a corporation s ability to pay for electoral advocacy has little or no correlation to the public s support for the corporation s political ideas. McConnell, 540 U.S. at 05 (quoting Austin v. Michigan State Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652, 660 (1990)).

84 74 Peaceful Coexistence Report Congress to make these categorical distinctions based on the corporate identity of the speaker In the contraceptive mandate cases involving for-profit businesses the government argues that the owners of the corporations must provide contraceptives to their employees because they have availed themselves of the benefits of the corporate form. 143 The government does not address why a corporation can exercise one First Amendment right but cannot exercise another. As Justice Alito wrote in Hobby Lobby, we protect the constitutional rights of corporations because corporations consist of people, and we are bound to protect their constitutional rights. 144 It is true, as Justice Ginsburg writes in her dissent, Corporations... have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. 145 But the people who own and operate corporations do, and that is why we protect the constitutional rights of corporations. 146 The government also argued that if the for-profit business owners are not forced to provide contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs they believe are sinful they are forcing their religious beliefs on employees who may disagree. 147 The Court addressed a similar concern (also raised by the government) in Citizens United, where the government argued that corporate independent expenditures can be limited because of its interest in protecting dissenting shareholders from being compelled to fund corporate political speech. 148 The Court rejected this argument as well. The government cannot infringe the First Amendment rights of one group simply because other people may disagree with how the group exercises its First Amendment rights. i. For-Profit Businesses and RFRA If for-profit businesses are persons within the meaning of RFRA the next step is to apply the statute. RFRA provides that Government shall not substantially burden a person s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a neutral rule of general applicability unless the rule can survive strict scrutiny. The first step is to determine whether there is a substantial burden on the person s religious practice. In order for a substantial burden to exist the practice must be both 142 Citizens United, 558 U.S. at Brief for Petitioner at 12-13, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ) ( Granting the relief respondents seek for profit-making corporate entities engaged in commercial activity would expand the scope of RFRA far beyond anything Congress contemplated; would disregard deeply engrained principles of corporation law that should inform the interpretation of RFRA as they do federal statutes generally ). 144 Hobby Lobby, 134 S.Ct. at Id. at 2794 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting, quoting Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm n, 558 U.S. 310, 466 (citations omitted) (2010) (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)). 146 Volokh, supra note 140 at Brief for Petitioner at 13, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ) ( [Applying RFRA to Hobby Lobby] would deny to thousands of employees (many of whom may not share the Greens religious beliefs) statutorily-guaranteed access to benefits of great importance to health and well-being. ) 148 Citizens United, 558 U.S. at

85 Commissioners Statements 75 explicitly religious and sincere. 149 It does not have to seem reasonable to the court that is outside the court s competence. If the person s practice is both religious and sincere you must examine whether the government s action is truly burdensome. [T]he substantial burden inquiry evaluates the coercive effect of the governmental pressure on the adherent s religious practice and steers well clear of deciding religious questions. 150 Justice Alito wrote, we have little trouble concluding that the Mandate constitutes a substantial burden. 151 The business owners are forced to choose between funding an act they believe to be intrinsically evil and being subject to ruinous fines. 152 We must now apply strict scrutiny. First we must determine the government s interest and whether it is compelling. Only the gravest interests may be considered compelling. 153 The government cites two compelling interests, generally described as public health and gender equality or assuring that women have equal access to health care services. 154 These purported interests are too broad to qualify as compelling interests. 155 In Hobby Lobby, the government also claimed that the mandate serves a compelling interest in ensuring that all women have 149 Korte, 735 F.3d at Id. at Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2775 (2014). 152 Id. at (2014). See also Brief for Respondent at 37-38, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No )( If Respondents continue to offer their current health plan, which comports with their religious beliefs but not the mandate, Respondents face fines of $100 per affected individual per day, which could total over $1.3 million per day, or close to $475 million per year. If Respondents drop insurance altogether, they would face annual penalties of $2,000 per employee, or more than $26 million (citations omitted)); Brief for Petitioner at 8, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, 134 S.Ct. 678 (2014) (No ) ( For Conestoga, that fine could amount to $95,000 per day, which would rapidly destroy the business and the 950 jobs that go with it. If Conestoga attempted to avoid these fines by dropping its healthcare plan altogether, it would incur a government penalty (totaling $1.9 million) (citations omitted)); Korte v. Sebelius, 735 F.3d 654, 663 (7 th Cir. 2013) (Sykes, J.) ( refusing to comply would financially devastate K&L Contractors and the Kortes as its owners the monetary penalties would total $730,000 per year ); Id. at 664 ( the Grote Family and Grote Industries object on religious grounds to providing coverage for contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization procedures.... the company faced an annual penalty of almost $17 million.. ). 153 Korte, 735 F.3d at The compelling-interest test generally requires a high degree of necessity. Brown v. Entm't Merchs. Ass'n, 131 S.Ct. 2729, 2741 (2011). The government must identify an actual problem in need of solving, and the curtailment of [the right] must be actually necessary to the solution. Id. at 2738 (citations omitted). In the free-exercise context, only those interests of the highest order and those not otherwise served can overbalance legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion. Yoder, 406 U.S. at 215. [I]n this highly sensitive constitutional area, only the gravest abuses, endangering paramount interests, give occasion for permissible limitation... Sherbert, 374 U.S. at 406. (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). The regulated conduct must pose[ ] some substantial threat to public safety, peace[,] or order. Id. at 403. Finally, a law cannot be regarded as protecting an interest of the highest order... when it leaves appreciable damage to that supposedly vital interest unprohibited. Lukumi, 508 U.S. at 547 (internal quotation marks omitted) [citations omitted]. 154 Korte, 735 F.3d at 686; Zubik v. Sebelius, 2013 WL at *28 (W.D. Pa. 2013). 155 Korte, 735 F.3d at 686.

86 76 Peaceful Coexistence Report access to all FDA-approved contraceptives without cost-sharing. 156 The Court simply assumed that the government s interest was compelling. 157 With the government s interest recast as increasing women s access to free contraception, can it qualify as a compelling interest? There is still litigation swirling around various provisions of the HHS mandate, so it is worth examining this issue in detail. I do not credit the government s far-fetched argument that the provision of free contraceptives to employed women is as vital to the republic as the financial health of the Social Security system. 158 The Constitution does not mandate the free provision of any consumer good. Why should anyone have a right to a consumer good funded by their fellow citizens? Women s equality does not depend upon having free (to them) contraceptives; 159 it is guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Nineteenth Amendments. Except in cases where contraceptives are prescribed to address non-pregnancy related medical conditions contraceptives are not, strictly speaking, medically necessary. They may be necessary for women (and by extension men) to live as they wish, but they are not medically necessary. The women affected by the mandate are by definition employed so if they value contraception they can purchase it. 160 And truly low-income women already have access to free or very inexpensive contraceptives through the government Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2779 (2014). 157 Id. at Korte, 735 F.3d at Griffin Statement, infra at 220 ( the federal contraceptive mandate has unfolded as a war between religious freedom on one side and women s equality on the other ). 160 Richard A. Epstein, Hobby Lobby vs. the Contraception Mandate, DEFINING IDEAS, July 7, 2014, available at Rational basis has no place under the RFRA, which requires the state to show that the supposed compelling interest in women s healthcare justifies a statutory mandate that disrupts all preexisting practices whereby firms did not supply the mandated contraception services. But women s healthcare is no more a compelling interest than men s healthcare. The elaborate ACA legislative findings that uninsured women need healthcare fail miserably to explain the employer s duty to subsidize anyone s healthcare. Neither the ACA s legislative history nor the [sic] Justice Ginsburg s dissent identifies any systematic market disruption remotely comparable to natural disasters, domestic uprisings, and foreign invasions. The orderly private market for contraceptive services negates any government necessity to make employers pay for them. Nothing in the RFRA, of course, prevents the state from providing those benefits out of general revenues. 161 Helen Alvaré, No Compelling Interest: The Birth Control Mandate and Religious Freedom, 58 VILLANOVA L. REV. 379, (2013).

87 Commissioners Statements 77 Furthermore, it is difficult for the government to claim that employer-provided contraceptives without a co-pay are a compelling interest given two facts: first, numerous health insurance plans were not required to provide contraceptives without cost-sharing because they were grandfathered under the terms of the Affordable Care Act; second, from the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 until 2010, it was the right of every employer to decide whether or not to include contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs in the health plan offered by their company. Yet now the government insists that virtually every employer must be required to provide contraceptives to their employees, no exceptions, just as the government insisted in O Centro that they could not allow exceptions to the Controlled Substances Act to accommodate a religious group. The Court responded: if the government s interest in prohibiting the use of the hallucinogen hoasca for religious ceremonies really is compelling, why does the Controlled Substances Act permit the Attorney General to exempt certain people from the Act s requirements? 162 And why has the Attorney General provided an exemption for the use of peyote by the Native American Church for the past thirty-five years? 163 The Court notes that the peyote exception has been part of the Controlled Substances Act since the Act s inception thirtyfive years earlier. The right not to pay for or provide drugs or devices you believe to be gravely immoral is rooted in two-and-a-quarter centuries of American practice. The application of the mandate upon objecting employers is not merely inconsistent with previous practice, as in O Centro it turns the existing relationship between business owners and the government on its head. A true compelling interest would have emerged sometime sooner than the day before yesterday. As in O Centro, the reason it did not emerge sooner is that the government s asserted interest is not, in fact, compelling. 164 Additionally, as Professor Helen Alvaré explains, there is substantial reason to think that the mandate will do little to advance the government s interest in preventing unintended pregnancies. Aside from the questionable assumptions that the government actually has an interest in preventing unintended pregnancies and that unintended pregnancies are necessarily unwanted pregnancies, cost is not one of the main reasons women give for why they were not using contraception. [A] CDC report shows that among the eleven percent of American On the first point, regarding the targeted audience: rates of unintended pregnancy are highest among groups the mandate will not affect the poorest adolescents and women who are already served by myriad federal and state programs. The [IOM] Report already acknowledges that low-income women are amply supplied with free or almost free contraception. Page 108 of the Report refers to contraceptive coverage as standard practice for most federally-funded insurance programs. It cites its availability in community health centers, family planning centers, and Medicaid. It goes further with respect to Medicaid, and points out that since 1972 it has required coverage for family planning in all state programs and has exempted family planning services and supplies from cost-sharing requirements. It points out that twenty-six states also have their own Medicaid family programs for women who do not technically qualify for Medicaid. 162 Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418, (2006). 163 Id. at Id. at 439.

88 78 Peaceful Coexistence Report women and girls at risk of unintended pregnancy who are not practicing contraception, lack of access is not a significant reason. 165 Women who are employed, who are the ones covered by the Mandate, already have extensive access to contraceptives through insurance. 166 It is questionable that the government s interest in extending free contraceptives to the small number of employed women who do not receive coverage through their health plan is sufficiently weighty to constitute a compelling interest. Furthermore, [R]ates of unintended pregnancy are highest among groups the Mandate will not affect the poorest adolescents and women who are already served by myriad federal and state programs. The [IOM] Report itself makes this observation; it notes that non-use of contraceptives is particularly likely among women who have a low income, who are not high school graduates, and who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group. 167 It is also questionable whether covering emergency contraception without cost-sharing will reduce unintended pregnancies, either because the women who take emergency contraception already are at low risk of pregnancy, or because some women change their behavior in response to the availability of emergency contraception. 168 If it is ambiguous whether the government will actually achieve its supposedly compelling interest, or that the warned-of bad effects may or may not occur, it is difficult to make a goodfaith argument that the interest is indeed compelling. If the evidence regarding the importance of the government s interest or the likelihood of that interest occurring is basically balanced, the government has failed to demonstrate that it has a worthy compelling interest. In its decision in 165 Alvaré, supra note 161 at INST. OF MED., CLINICAL PREVENTIVE SERVICES FOR WOMEN: CLOSING THE GAPS 109 (2011) [hereinafter IOM 2011 REPORT] ( A more recent 2010 study of employers found that 85 percent of large employers and 62 percent of small employers offered coverage of FDA-approved contraceptives. ). 167 Alvaré, supra note 161 at 424, quoting IOM 2011 Report at Tal Gross, Jeanne LaFortune, Corinne Low, What Happens the Morning After? The Costs and Benefits of Expanding Access to Emergency Contraception, 33 J. POL Y ANALYSIS & MANAG. VOL. 1, 70, at 84 (2013). If women who take EC [emergency contraception] are actually at a decreased risk of pregnancy, then we would expect very small effects from expansion of access. For instance, women who take EC may do so principally because another method of contraception has failed. Some studies indicate this is indeed the case (Trussel et al., 2004). If women who consume EC face a lower risk of pregnancy from a single sexual encounter than average, say 2 percent, then the pregnancies averted by additional EC access would be negligible relative to total births. Similarly, if some women change their sexual behavior in response to the availability of EC, small and undetectable impacts are expected. The U.S. population is much larger than the number of EC pills consumed, thus, it takes only a small fraction of all U.S. women changing their behavior to offset the decrease in births driven directly by EC. Under either scenario, very large changes to births or abortions are unlikely, given that each additional pill prevents pregnancy from only a single sexual encounter. More broadly, unexpected sexual encounters may account for a small percentage of overall pregnancies. Roughly half of women seeking abortions had been using some form of contraception, and few report unexpected sex as a factor in their abortion (Jones, Darroch, & Henshaw, 2002). If individuals who use EC actually face a low risk of unintended pregnancy, and individuals most likely to experience unintended pregnancies are unlikely to seek EC, then the impact of expanded access will be greatly diminished. We conclude that policies offering OTC access to EC avert a private cost in acquiring the pill through a physician, but do not avert the social cost of unintended pregnancy [emphasis added].

89 Commissioners Statements 79 O Centro, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, the District Court concluded that the evidence on health rises was in equipoise, and similarly that the evidence on diversion was virtually balanced. In the face of such an even showing, the court reasoned that the Government had failed to demonstrate a compelling interest. 169 In Hobby Lobby, however, the government survived application of the compelling interest test only to be skewered by the least-restrictive-means test. 170 Justice Alito noted that the government s argument was fatally undermined by the existence of the so-called accommodation for objecting religious organizations. 171 HHS could simply make this option available to for-profit businesses, though concededly this may not satisfy all religious objections. 172 Set aside the accommodation for a moment, as some religious businesses will likely consider it to burden their religious exercise, as do a number of religious non-profits. Why is HHS so fixated on providing contraceptives in this way? Presumably the government s goal is not merely to have contraceptives available for free to consumers, but for more women to actually start using contraception regularly. If that is the goal, why doesn t the FDA simply mandate that all forms of oral contraceptives be sold over the counter? Plan B is now available over the counter, and being able to purchase regular oral contraceptives over the counter would likely reduce the cost of the drugs and would be less time-consuming than making an appointment for a prescription and then going to the pharmacy. Or the government could simply reimburse pharmacies directly for any contraceptives they dispense. That would not be more complicated than reimbursing TPAs and insurers and providing them with an extra financial incentive. Or the government could simply have contractors such as community health centers simply dispense free contraceptives to all comers. None of these options need involve objecting employers at all. Second, the government s exemption of numerous classes of employers undermines the least restrictive means prong as well as the compelling interest. The regulatory scheme grandfathers, exempts, or accommodates several categories of employers from the contraception mandate and does not apply to others (those with fewer than 50 employees) Gonzalez v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao de Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418, 426 (2006). 170 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014). 171 Id. at In response to the Hobby Lobby decision, HHS issued new regulations extending the accommodation to closelyheld for-profit businesses. Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, 80 Federal Register 41318, (July 14, 2015), available at Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, 80 Federal Register 41318, (July 14, 2015) ( Thirty-seven percent of employers offering health benefits offered at least one health benefit plan in 2014 ), available at

90 80 Peaceful Coexistence Report Since the government grants so many exceptions already, it can hardly argue against exempting these plaintiffs. 174 The Court did not address this issue in regard to the least-restrictive-means test in Hobby Lobby but it may have occasion to do so in future litigation. 175 b. Religious Groups Religious groups are the second set of plaintiffs challenging the HHS mandate, most famously the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns who care for the elderly poor. Some religious organizations qualify for an outright exemption from the HHS mandate. Unfortunately, this exemption is limited to houses of worship and their integrated auxiliaries. 176 The narrow class of entities covered by the exemption has the strange effect of excluding obviously religious employers such as the Little Sisters of the Poor. Because the Little Sisters are an independent order within the greater Catholic Church and not auxiliaries of any particular diocese (the Little Sisters operate thirty homes for the elderly poor within the United States) they are not considered a religious employer. The University of Notre Dame is not considered a religious employer, which may be surprising given that every president of the University must be a priest who is a member of the order of the Congregation of Holy Cross. 177 HHS argues that religious groups that do not qualify for the exemption still have recourse to the so-called accommodation. The accommodation was revised after the Supreme Court s decision in Hobby Lobby and after the Supreme Court granted an injunction to Wheaton College. 178 The accommodation requires religious organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor and Wheaton College to do one of two things: 1) self-certify that it is an eligible organization and that it objects on religious grounds to providing some or all contraceptive 174 Korte, 735 F.3d at Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, (2014); Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, July 15, 2015, at 5-6, available at Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, 78 Fed. Reg , at (July 2, 2013) (to be codified at 26 C.F.R. pt. 74, 29 C.F.R. pt and 2590, 45 C.F.R. pr. 147 and 156). [T]he simplified and clarified definition of religious employer does not expand the universe of religious employers that qualify for the exemption beyond that which was intended in the 2012 final regulations, but only eliminates any perceived potential disincentive for religious employers to provide educational, charitable, and social services to their communities. The Departments believe that the simplified and clarified definition of religious employer continues to respect the religious interests of houses of worship and their integrated auxiliaries in a way that does not undermine the governmental interests furthered by the contraceptive coverage requirement. Houses of worship and their integrated auxiliaries that object to contraceptive coverage on religious grounds are more likely than other employers to employ people of the same faith who share the same objection, and who would therefore be less likely than other people to use contraceptive services even if such services were covered under their plan. 177 A religious order which counts as one of its members the late Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus and a charter member of this Commission. 178 Wheaton Coll. v. Burwell, 134 S.Ct (2014).

91 Commissioners Statements 81 coverage, which it does by executing EBSA Form 700 and [delivering] it to their insurer or third-party administrator (TPA) ; 179 or notifying the Secretary of HHS that it is an eligible organization and objects for religious reasons to providing some or all contraceptive coverage. 180 If the organization follows the latter procedure it must provide information to HHS that allows HHS to identify the organization and arrange for its TPA or insurer to provide contraceptive coverage. 181 HHS then uses EBSA Form 700, or, if the second option is used, simply notifies the TPA or insurer that the employer meets certain criteria established by HHS and has religious objections to providing contraceptives in its insurance plan. In the case of an organization with an insured group health plan - that is, A benefit plan in which the employer employs a health insurance issuer to assume the risk of providing health insurance the employer s opt-out really changes nothing other than adding a few administrative steps. 183 The government requires the insurer to provide contraceptives in its insurance plans and whether or not the religious organization objects makes no substantive difference except that the religious organization supposedly will no longer be paying for the contraception. 184 When an organization submits the Form expressing an objection to providing contraceptive coverage, the issuer has sole responsibility for providing such coverage and In the context of insured plans, health insurance issuers are generally responsible for paying for contraceptive coverage when a religious non-profit opts out. The Department expects this will be cost-neutral for issuers because of the cost savings that accompany improvements in women s health and lower pregnancy rates [citations omitted]. 185 In a self-insured plan - one in which the employer assumes the risk of providing health insurance the objecting organization must notify its TPA or HHS that it objects to providing contraceptive coverage. The TPA must then arrange for contraceptive coverage and The TPA s obligations are enforceable under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ( ERISA ) Brief of Appellants at 14, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius, No. 1:13-cv WJM-BNB (10 th Cir. Feb. 24, 2014). 180 Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, 80 Federal Register (July 14, 2015), available at Id. at Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, 794 F.3d 1151, 1158 (10 th Cir. 2015). 183 Geneva College v. Secretary of U.S. Dep t of Health and Human Services, 778 F.3d 422, 429 (3 rd Cir. 2015)( The submission of the form has no real effect on the plan participants and beneficiaries. ). 184 One wonders how this will work in practice. Will insurance companies change the cost of insurance plans just for objecting organizations? 185 Little Sisters of the Poor, 794 F.3d at 1165, Id. at Id. at 1166.

92 82 Peaceful Coexistence Report However, the Departments concede they lack authority to enforce those [federal] requirements as to self-insured church plans, which are group health plans established by a church or association of churches covering the church s or association s employees. Organizations that provide health care coverage for employees through self-insured church plans are exempt from regulation under ERISA [citations omitted]. 188 This accommodation is arguably nothing more than a sleight of hand. When the insurer or TPA receives the form or notice they must arrange to provide contraceptive coverage for the employees at no cost to the employees (and in the case of universities, students). 189 The money that pays for the contraceptives comes from the insurer or TPA (who also receive a federal subsidy) but the religious employer starts the process. 190 i. Religious Groups and RFRA Even the government does not contest that religious groups qualify as persons under RFRA so we may pass over that in silence. The entire issue, then, swirls around the application of RFRA to the Little Sisters of the Poor and similarly situated groups. As mentioned above, religious groups are eligible for the accommodation, but they object to utilizing it, arguing that doing so triggers contraceptive coverage for their employees. 191 Can RFRA protect them? The Supreme Court has granted seven petitions for certiorari that ask that very question. 192 The first step, of course, is whether the challenged belief is sincere and whether the government substantially burdens religious exercise. The sincerity of the religious groups belief does not generally seem to be questioned by the government or the courts. 193 The bone of contention is whether filling out EBSA Form 700 and submitting it to the group s insurer or TPA, or notifying HHS of the organization s objection, constitutes a substantial burden. Judge Posner has written, mis. 194 The form is two pages long 737 words, most of it boring boilerplate; the passages we 188 Id. at C.F.R A. 190 Id.; 45 C.F.R Geneva College v. Secretary U.S. Dep t of Health and Human Services, 778 F.3d 422, 435 (3 rd Cir. 2015). 192 Order Granting Petitions for Certiorari in Zubik v. Burwell, No ; Priests for Life v. HHS, No ; Roman Catholic Archbishop v. Burwell, No., ; E. Tx. Baptist Univ. v. Burwell, No ; Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, No ; So. Nazarene Univ. v. Burwell, No ; Geneva College v. Burwell, No (Nov. 6, 2015). 193 See, e.g., East Texas Baptist University v. Sebelius, 2013 WL , at *11 (S.D. Tex. 2013) ( The government does not contend that the plaintiffs religious beliefs about abortion, abortifacients, or forced complicity through facilitation are insincerely held, unreasonable, or fringe. ). 194 Id.

93 Commissioners Statements 83 quoted earlier, the only ones of consequence, consist of only 95 words. Signing the form and mailing it to Meritain and Aetna could have taken no more than five minutes. 195 What is the substantial burden? Is it, as Judge Posner says, merely the paperwork involved? The plaintiffs say no. EBSA Form 700 informs the insurer or TPA that the employer is eligible for the accommodation and has religious objections to providing contraceptives in its insurance plan. Notifying HHS that the organization objects to providing the coverage has the same effect. When the insurer or TPA receives the form they must arrange to provide contraceptive coverage for the employees. 196 The money that pays for the contraceptives comes from the insurer or TPA (who also receive a federal subsidy) but the religious employer starts the process. 197 The Zubik/Persico appellees conceded that they have provided similar information as is required by the self-certification form to their third-party administrator in the past. However, their past actions barred the provision of contraceptive products, services, or counseling. Now, under the ACA, this information will be used to facilitate/initiate the provision of contraceptive products, services, or counseling - in direct contravention to their religious tenets. 198 The religious organizations argue that when they submit the form they trigger the provision of contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs they believe are gravely immoral. Yes, as the government says, third parties are carrying out the actions to which the plaintiffs object, but by signing the form the plaintiffs are directing the third party to engage in morally objectionable actions. 199 It is not merely that plaintiffs object to engaging in sin themselves but also object to encouraging anyone else to engage in sin. As of this writing, the Second 200, Third 201, Fifth 202, Sixth 203, Seventh 204, Tenth 205, and District of Columbia 206 courts of appeal have ruled against religious organizations challenges to the revised 195 University of Notre Dame v. Sebelius, 743 F.3d 547, 554 (7 th Cir. 2014) (Posner, J.) C.F.R A C.F.R A; 45 C.F.R Geneva College v. Secretary U.S. Dep t of Health and Human Services, 778 F.3d 422, 433 (3 rd Cir. 2015). 199 Zubik v. Sebelius, 983 F.Supp.2d 576, 606 (W.D.Pa. 2013). [A]lthough the accommodation legally enables Plaintiffs to avoid directly paying for the portion of the health plan that provides contraceptive products, services, and counseling, the accommodation requires them to shift the responsibility of purchasing insurance and providing contraceptive products, services, and counseling, onto a secular source. The Court concludes that Plaintiffs have a sincerely-held belief that shifting responsibility does not absolve or exonerate them from the moral turpitude created by the accommodation ; to the contrary, it still substantially burdens their sincerely-held beliefs. 200 Catholic Health Care Sys. v. Burwell, 796 F.3d 207 (2 nd Cir. 2015). 201 Geneva College v. Burwell, 778 F.3d 422 (3 rd Cir. 2015). 202 E. Tex. Baptist Univ. v. Burwell, 793 F.3d 449(5 th Cir. 2015). 203 Michigan Catholic Conf. v. Burwell, 755 F.3d 372 (6 th Cir. 2014).

94 84 Peaceful Coexistence Report accommodation. The Eighth Circuit has ruled in favor of religious organizations challenge to the revised accommodation. 207 The courts that ruled in favor of the government concluded that the rejiggered accommodation does not substantially burden the objecting parties. They determined that the burden was not substantial for two reasons: 1) the objecting organizations use the accommodation to opt out of the Mandate, not to trigger provision of contraceptives; and 2) the accommodation forbids the insurer or TPA from imposing any contraceptive-related costs on the objecting organization. 208 Judge Posner, in a decision denying an injunction to the University of Notre Dame before the Supreme Court issued its decision in Hobby Lobby, described the burden as analogical to that of a Quaker who is granted a conscientious exemption from the draft but is told that someone else will be drafted in his stead. (Judge Hamilton repeated the analogy in his concurring opinion after the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Seventh Circuit.) 209 The Quaker protests that this means his exemption triggers the drafting of another man and that is a substantial burden on his own religious exercise. Judge Posner writes, Would this mean that by exempting him the government had forced him to trigger the drafting of a replacement who was not a conscientious objector, and that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would require a draft exemption for both the Quaker and his non-quaker replacement? That seems a fantastic suggestion. 210 That would indeed be a fantastic suggestion if the analogy were correct. It is not, for two reasons. First, requiring a religious group to sign the form and send it to their insurer or TPA is not similar to the Quaker being excused from military duty knowing that some other person will be called up in his place. The religious group is sending it to a particular insurer or TPA, or identifying a particular TPA in its written notice to HHS. It is more akin to telling the Quaker, You may be excused from military service, but only on condition that you identify a specific non-quaker who must serve in your place Univ. of Notre Dame v. Burwell, 786 F.3d 606 (7 th Cir. 2015). 205 Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, 794 F.3d 1151 (10 th Cir. 2015). 206 Priests for Life v. Burwell, 772 F.3d 229 (D.C. Cir. 2014). 207 Sharpe Holdings, Inc., v. Burwell, 801 F.3d 927 (8 th Cir. 2015). 208 See, e.g., Geneva College v. Burwell, 778 F.3d at ; Little Sisters of the Poor, 794 F.3d at ; Priests for Life, 772 F.3d at ; E. Tex. Baptist Univ., 793 F.3d at ; Mich. Cath. Conf., 775 F.3d at University of Notre Dame v. Burwell, 786 F.3d 606, 623 (7 th Cir. 2015) (Hamilton, J., concurring). 210 University of Notre Dame v. Sebelius, 743 F.3d 547, 556 (7 th Cir. 2014) (Posner, J.). 211 Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, 794 F.3d 1151, 1214 (10 th Cir. 2015) (Baldock, J., dissenting in part).

95 Commissioners Statements 85 In the Tenth Circuit, Judge Baldock dissented in part, arguing that the accommodation substantially burdens self-insured organizations. The majority argued, Plaintiffs and the dissent emphasize that the TPA may arrange or provide coverage only after a religious non-profit organization opts out. We consider this to be an uncontested and unremarkable feature of the accommodation scheme. 212 The majority did not consider this to be a substantial burden, reasoning that the ACA requires insurance plans to include contraception (this elides the law a bit, as it is only the regulations that mandate the provision of contraceptives) and that therefore the accommodation shifts the burden of compliance from the objecting organization to its TPA. 213 The dissent objected that the mechanics of the relationship between self-insured organizations and their TPA make the objecting organization the but-for cause of the coverage of contraception and that this is the same situation in which the Hobby Lobby plaintiffs found themselves. 214 Unlike organizations that use an insurance plan rather than self-insuring, selfinsured organizations can actually prevent their insurance from covering contraceptives at all. The self-insured organizations are in a position in which they follow the law and violate their consciences, or disobey the law and face crippling fines. The dissent writes: Put another way, if the self-insured plaintiffs do not opt out, who will provide the coverage for their plan participants and beneficiaries? The answer: no one. The self-insured plaintiffs cannot do so per their faith; the TPAs cannot do so per the law. Thus, the self-insured accommodation renders any duty to provide, and any entitlement to receive, contraceptive coverage wholly unenforceable and thus illusory - unless and until the self-insured plaintiffs opt out. 215 In Sheridan, the defendant registered for the draft but did not lawfully opt out. Instead, he refused to be inducted. But the result under conscription law was the same: another person [was] called in his place. In other words, like the insured plaintiffs, no matter what conscientious objectors do or refuse to do, the government can and will achieve its military draft goals. The opposite result occurs under the self-insured accommodation scheme. If a self-insured plaintiff simply refuses to provide coverage and does not opt out, the government cannot call a third party in its place. The accommodation scheme thus places the self-insured plaintiffs in a very different position vis-à-vis helping the government achieve its religiously objectionable goals. Conscientious objectors cannot prevent the government from conscripting their replacements; but the self-insured plaintiffs can completely prevent the government from even authorizing their TPAs to provide objected-to coverage. Conscientious objectors also need not identify a related third party to serve in their stead; but the self-insured plaintiffs must identify a related third party through a form or letter. And this form or letter is the only means by which the government can authorize that third party to serve in their stead.... Such a conscientious objector scheme - where the government could draft a replacement soldier only if the initial conscientious objector opted out and identified a previously ineligible relative to serve in his stead - would be immensely problematic, to say the least. [citations omitted] 212 Little Sisters of the Poor, 794 F.3d at Id. at Id. at Id. at 1211.

96 86 Peaceful Coexistence Report This argument has been ignored or dismissed by other circuits. 216 However, the ultimate fate of these claims remains unclear. The Seventh Circuit initially ruled against Notre Dame, and then the Supreme Court vacated and remanded the case for reconsideration in light of Hobby Lobby. The Seventh Circuit s second opinion was virtually indistinguishable from its first, which makes one wonder if the court seriously applied Hobby Lobby. The Supreme Court vacated and remanded the Michigan Catholic Conference case to the Sixth Circuit, which resulted in the Sixth Circuit issuing an opinion very similar to that of the Seventh and Tenth Circuits. 217 Since the Supreme Court remanded multiple cases for reconsideration in light of Hobby Lobby it seems as though the Court is serious about applying Hobby Lobby to the claims made by religious organizations. Opinions that mirror the vacated and remanded Sixth and Seventh Circuit opinions may not be long-lived. In the Tenth Circuit, the Little Sisters of the Poor did not petition for rehearing en banc. However, some judge[s] on the Tenth Circuit asked for a poll to be taken as to whether to grant en banc review sua sponte. 218 The Tenth Circuit denied rehearing, but Judges Hartz, Kelly, Tymkovich, and Holmes dissented from the denial of rehearing. In his dissent, which the other dissenting judges joined, Judge Hartz argued that the panel majority s determination that there was no substantial burden on religious liberty was contrary to prior precedent. The panel majority s opinion either relied on reframing the parties religious beliefs 219 or on determining that the parties religious beliefs are unreasonable. 220 Neither is appropriate for the judiciary. 216 Priests for Life v. Burwell, 772 F.3d 229, (D.C.Cir.2014). 217 Michigan Catholic Conference v. Burwell, 2015 WL (6 th Cir. 2015). 218 Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, Order Denying Hearing En Banc, 799 F.3d 1315, (10 th Cir. 2015) (Hartz, J., dissenting). 219 Id. at Where did [the panel majority] go wrong? It does not doubt the sincerity of the plaintiffs religious belief. But it does not accept their statements of what that belief is. It refuses to acknowledge that their religious belief is that execution of the documents is sinful. Rather, it reframes their belief. It generalizes the belief as being only opposition to facilitating the use and delivery of certain contraceptives to which they object. Under this reframing, the plaintiffs have no religious objection to executing the forms; it is just that executing the forms burdens their religious opposition to certain contraceptives. The burden would be akin to that caused by a tax on sales of religious tracts at the church bookstore, where the church has no religious objection to paying a tax but complains that the tax will make it harder to spread the Gospel. After so framing the plaintiffs belief, the panel majority then examines the particulars of the governing law and decides that executing the documents does not really implicate the plaintiffs in the use of delivery of contraceptives. If one accepts this reframing of plaintiffs belief, the analysis of the panel majority may be correct; perhaps one could say that the exercise of this reframed belief was substantially burdened. But it is not the job of the judiciary to tell people what their religious beliefs are. 220 Id. at

97 Commissioners Statements 87 The analysis of whether the government interest in providing cost-free contraceptives is compelling is the same as the analysis for for-profit institutions. There is one additional wrinkle in the case of religious organizations. The government s interest in regard to forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor, Catholic Charities, and similar religious organizations is particularly undermined by the exemption granted to houses of worship. The District Court noted in Zubik: [T]he Court first notes that the existence of a religious employer exemption is an acknowledgment of the lack of a compelling governmental interest as to religious employers who hire employees for their houses of worship.... Thus, the Government s argument that its two stated compelling interests will not overbalance the exact same legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion (at times raised by the same individuals i.e., Bishop Zubik in the Pittsburgh case) when asserted on behalf of a different religious affiliated/related employer falls. If the Court were to conclude that the Government s stated interests were sufficiently compelling to outweigh the legitimate claims raised by the nonprofit, religious affiliated/related Plaintiffs, the net effect (as noted above) would be to allow the Government to cleave the Catholic Church into two parts: worship, and service and good works, thereby entangling the Government in what comprises religion. 221 On appeal, the Third Circuit barely addressed the District Court s argument that determining which portions of the Catholic Church are eligible for the exemption and which for the accommodation would entangle[e] the Government in what comprises religion. The Third Circuit simply noted that churches and associations of churches are exempted from filing annual returns with the IRS, whereas religious non-profits are not so exempted. 222 It then followed the Or perhaps the panel majority recognizes the plaintiffs belief but is simply refusing to recognize its importance because it is merely an uninformed derivative of its core belief. Some of the language could be read as saying the following: (1) Yes, the plaintiffs have a religious objection to executing the documents. (2) But the religious core of that objection is the plaintiffs opposition to certain types of contraception; their religious objection to executing the documents is merely the expression of the view that being required to perform that task substantially burdens their beliefs regarding contraception. (3) To let the plaintiffs decide whether executing the documents is independently sinful in itself would be contrary to the court s duty to determine whether the document-execution requirement substantially burdens what the plaintiff s religious concern is really all about - the provision and use of contraceptives. Put another way, the panel majority may be saying that it is the court s prerogative to determine whether requiring the plaintiffs to execute the documents substantially burdens their core religious belief, regardless of whether the plaintiffs have a derivative religious belief that that executing the documents is sinful. This is a dangerous approach to religious liberty. Could we really tolerate letting courts examine the reasoning behind a religious practice or belief and decide what is core and what is derivative?... The Supreme Court has refused to examine the reasonableness of a sincere religious belief - in particular, the reasonableness of where the believer draws the line between sinful and acceptable - at least since Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division, 450 U.S. 707, 715 (1981), and it emphatically reaffirmed that position in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2778 (2014). 221 Zubik v. Burwell, 983 F.Supp.2d 576, (W.D. Pa. 2013). 222 Geneva College v. Burwell, 778 F.3d 422, 443 (3 rd Cir. 2015), citing 26 U.S.C. 6033(a)(3)(A)(i), (iii).

98 88 Peaceful Coexistence Report Seventh Circuit and quoted Walz v. Tax Commission in support of the proposition that [R]eligious employers, defined as in the cited regulation, have long enjoyed advantages (notably tax advantages) over other entities, without these advantages being thought to violate the establishment clause. 223 However, Walz was not, as are the religious non-profits challenging the accommodation, a religious organization claiming it had been unjustly excluded from the class of religious organizations that received a particular benefit. (It is worth noting that the Court in Walz declined to characterize the tax exemption as a benefit, but rather as a way of respecting the independence of both church and state.) Rather, Walz argued that including churches in a broad class of non-profit organizations that were eligible for a property tax exemption violated the Establishment Clause. 224 Contra the Seventh and Third Circuits, the Court s decision in Walz has nothing to say about whether it is constitutionally permissible for the government to provide an exemption to a Catholic diocese, but not to a Catholic high school within that diocese. Judge Posner s comment that The establishment clause does not require the burdens (or the benefits) that laws of general applicability impose on religious institutions 225 responds more to a worry expressed in Justice Douglas s lone dissent than to anything expressed in the majority or concurring opinions. 226 Incidentally, Justice Harlan wrote in concurrence: Preliminarily, I think it relevant to face up to the fact that it is far easier to agree on the purpose that underlies the First Amendment s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses than to obtain agreement on the standards that should govern their application. What is at stake as a matter of policy is preventing that kind and degree of government involvement in religious life that, as history teaches us, is apt to lead to strife and frequently strain a political system to the breaking point. 227 Given that religious organizations have now been embroiled in litigation for years, Justice Harlan s words about minimizing government involvement in religious life might profitably be embraced by HHS. Furthermore, s exchanged between a White House policy official and an IRS official suggest that the White House deliberately used the IRS provision at issue, Section 6033, to 223 Id. at 443, quoting Notre Dame v. Sebelius, 743 F.3d 547, 560 (7 th Cir. 2014). 224 Walz v. Tax Comm n of City of New York, 397 U.S. 664, 707 (1970)(Jackson, J., dissenting)( To be sure, the New York statute does not single out the church for grant or favor. It includes churches in a long list of nonprofit organizations ). 225 Notre Dame v. Sebelius, 743 F.3d 547, 560 (7 th Cir. 2014). 226 Walz, 397 U.S. 664, at Id. at 694.

99 Commissioners Statements 89 minimize the number of religious organizations that would be exempted from the contraception mandate. 228 It is clear that the Administration was primarily interested in maximizing the number of women entitled to contraception coverage and only secondarily concerned with the possible religious liberty ramifications. 229 In discussing the various possible tests and how likely they would be to limit the number of religious organizations that qualified for an exemption, an IRS official wrote to a White House policy official: I have always seen prongs 1-3 as limiters on the broader pool [of religious institutions] that could meet prong 4 (26 USC sec. 6033(a)3)(A)(i) and (iii)). Especially prong 3 (primarily serves persons who shares its tenets). The soup kitchen that is in the tax-exemption group ruling, for example, that is most likely an integrated auxilliary of a church (tax-exempt; affiliated; funded by the church) for purposes of 6033, does not limit the persons it services. Not sure what you are looking for on your question since I don t think it is possible to say that zero additional people would fall into the reg rule. If you are looking for a quantification of the delta between using prongs 1-4 and using only prong 4, my sense anecdotally is that the delta is more than zero but I don t think we would have any way of quantifying it for you. 230 White House and IRS officials also engaged in detailed discussion regarding which Catholic institutions would be exempted from the contraception mandate. In the same quoted above, the IRS official noted, Colleges would generally be required to file Forms (The large, well-known Catholic universities - e.g., Georgetown, Notre Dame - do not appear to be part of the Catholic group ruling. They also file returns. 231 The officials are not even really discussing which institutions are more religious than others, but simply trying to determine how to write the rule to capture as many institutions as possible. The decision whether to use a third party to cover drugs and devices their faith teaches are morally objectionable should be left up to the churches and the religious institutions, not the government. 228 Brief for Amici Curiae Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist; Sisters of Life; and the Judicial Education Project in Support of Petitioners, at 25-27, Zubik v. Burwell, Nos , -1453, -1505, , -105, - 119, & -191 (2015), available at Mary-Mother-of-the-Eucharist.pdf. 229 Id. at App. 15, from Jeanne Lambrew to Sarah Ingram and Ellen Montz, July 19, We found the following document and are still trying to figure out if an accountant or fund manager that gets more than half of its revenue from churches would be exempt under the fourth prong as a non-filer of a 990?available at Second, assuming that the answer is no, do we feel at this point we can say that we believe that replacing the four - prong test with the fourth prong will not expand the number of workers in health plans that are exempt from contraception coverage? What more needs to be done to make such a determination? 230 Id. at App , from Sarah Ingram to Jeanne Lambrew and Ellen Montz, July 19, Id. at App. 12, from Sarah Ingram to Jeanne Lambrew and Ellen Montz, July 19, 2012.

100 90 Peaceful Coexistence Report The analysis of whether the government can show that the mandate is the least restrictive means of advancing the government s interest is the same as for for-profit organizations. I therefore refer to Section IV (a). It is worth taking a moment to reflect on the oddity of this situation. Even if one is not religious, it is generally understood that religious people can very stubbornly refuse to engage in activities they believe violate the tenets of their religion. The more interesting question is: Why is the government so determined to force religious objectors to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees? Regardless of what sleights of hand are used that is what ultimately happens. HHS and DOL s best estimate as of July 2015 is that there will be 87 eligible for-profit businesses that will utilize the accommodation, and 122 non-profit religious organizations that will do so. 232 Why is HHS so determined to force a mere 200 businesses and organizations to cover contraceptives for their employees? Why is it so important that employees of Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor have access to cost-free contraception? Why not just allow them an exemption? Is free provision of contraceptives a key tenet of the Administration s faith? 233 V. Christian Student Groups and Religious Liberty Christian student groups find it increasingly difficult to establish belief and behavioral requirements for would-be leaders without suffering reprisals from university administrators or student council organizations. 234 The Commission majority applauds this state of affairs in the findings and recommendations that accompany this report. CLS v. Martinez is the best-known example of these cases. Generally, these Christian student groups require full members and officers to sign a statement of Christian faith. 235 This statement may also include a pledge to 232 Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, 80 Federal Register (July 14, 2015), available at T.S. Eliot, Notes toward the Definition of Culture, in CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE 104 (1967). The reflection that what we believe is not merely what we formulate and subscribe to, but that behaviour is also belief, and that even the most conscious and developed of us live also at the level on which belief and behaviour cannot be distinguished, is one that may, once we allow our imagination to play upon it, be very disconcerting. 234 For simplicity, university administrators or universities shall apply throughout to any university body that has the ability to bestow or deny registered student organization status. 235 InterVarsity Asian-American Christian Fellowship (IV-AACF) at Vanderbilt University, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (March 18, 2013) (on file with the Commission). IV-AACF eagerly welcomes students and faculty from all faith backgrounds to participate as members, but we require each student member to affirm a statement of faith that outlines the basic tenets of Christianity. This requirement acts as a safeguard to ensure that student leaders of AACF will maintain the group s vision and integrity. See also Fr. John Sims Baker, Chaplain, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (March 6, 2013) (on file with the Commission). Vanderbilt s administration changed its non-discrimination policy to forbid student organizations from taking religious criteria into consideration when determining leadership positions.

101 Commissioners Statements 91 abstain from sex outside of heterosexual marriage. 236 In some cases, university administrators have taken issue with the requirement that full members and officers abstain from sex outside of heterosexual marriage, arguing that it discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and therefore violates the school s nondiscrimination policy (which is sometimes presented as an accept all comers policy). 237 Universities have taken this position even though the requirement to abstain from sex outside of heterosexual marriage is directed at conduct, not sexual orientation per se, and applies to people of all sexual orientations. 238 Oddly, according to public comments, universities have often taken these adverse actions against Christian student groups even though there is no aggrieved student who has been denied a leadership role in the group based on these criteria. 239 The leaders of student organizations were required to sign an affirmation of the non-discrimination policy. The student leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic could not in conscience sign the affirmation since religious criteria are the most important ones for leadership in the organization. The result is there is no registered Catholic student organization at Vanderbilt. See, e.g., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Grinnell College, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2013) (on file with the Commission); InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, formerly at Rollins College, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2013) (on file with the Commission) See CLS v. Martinez, 130 S.Ct. 2971, (2010). 237 Id. at ; see also Vanderbilt University, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2013) (on file with the Commission) ( Those [religious] groups have determined that they want to be able to discriminate against other students on the basis of students protected status by restricting students eligibility for membership and to run for leadership positions. ); Carol M. Swain, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at 1 (Feb. 27, 2013) (on file with the Commission). ( After months of framing the issue around its non-discrimination policy, the university made a sudden switch and began referring to the new policy as an all-comers. ). 238 Jessica Laporte, Why I am a leader in TCF, TUFTS DAILY, Dec. 10, 2012 (submitted as part of InterVarsity at Tufts University Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights) (on file with the Commission). I am a woman who is attracted to both men and women, which is something I finally had the courage to accept and see in my life. Before understanding my unconditional acceptance by God, I was unwilling to admit that I was attracted to women because I was afraid of what that would mean for my life. I believe that God intended sex between one man and one woman in the context of marriage, and therefore, I will remain sexually chaste for the rest of my life or until I get married. This means that I will not date a woman. Although my orientation is not strictly heterosexual, I am a leader in TCF because of my beliefs about what God intended for relationships. I am not a leader in TCF because I chose to be straight but because I have chosen to deny myself in all things and take up my cross daily in order to follow Christ. It is difficult to hear people speaking out against TCF as an unsafe space for LGBT students, because it s actually one of the only places that I feel comfortable discussing my sexuality. 239 American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defending Freedom, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 2 (2013) (on file with the Commission). The universities will typically claim that religious organizations are discriminating on the basis of religion if the group requires its leaders to be Christians and/or sexual orientation if the group requires that its leaders abide by a code of conduct that includes Biblical sexual ethics. Crucially, this claim will be made generally without any complaint of discrimination against the group. In other words, the group will be deemed discriminatory in the absence of a single identifiable victim of the group s alleged discrimination.

102 92 Peaceful Coexistence Report In other cases, the administrators are hostile even to a bare requirement that student leaders adhere to the group s faith. Professor Carol Swain writes that Vanderbilt s Christian Legal Society initially attempted to meet the university s new requirements by making appropriate changes to its constitution, such as the removal of verses of Scripture regarding Biblical lifestyles. 240 When these alterations were deemed insufficient, CLS joined forces with other Christian ministries who sought to persuade the University to reinstate its longstanding policy of allowing religious groups to have religious leadership requirements. 241 Vanderbilt refused to do so. Universities have been unwilling to simply express their disapproval of the student groups religiously-based behavior requirements, as inappropriate as that would have been. They have decided that groups with theologically-based membership or leadership requirements cannot be officially recognized student groups. Withholding official recognition makes it much more difficult for these groups to exist as they are denied funding (which often exists because of mandatory student fees), the ability to meet on campus, the ability to use campus resources to advertise their events, the right to participate in official events and hold joint events with officially recognized student groups, and the use of the university name. 242 These restrictions can destroy a small group in fact, the Hastings CLS chapter no longer exists. 243 In the most extreme instances this official expression of disapproval has contributed to a climate that encourages actions that would be considered harassment if directed toward a more fashionable minority. 244 After approximately 125 distinct controversies, a clear trend has emerged: On college campuses, nondiscrimination regulations are not utilized to protect a coherent class of wronged students but instead as a pretext of viewpoint discrimination against orthodox Christianity. 240 Carol M. Swain, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at 1 (Feb. 27, 2013) (on file with the Commission). 241 Id. 242 Id at 1-2 ( These now unregistered groups can no longer use the University s mail server to announce their meetings. They cannot post notices on bulletin boards, co-sponsor events with other student organizations, or participate in interfaith activities and student fairs. ); Fr. John Sims Baker, Chaplain, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (March 6, 2013) (on file with the Commission) ( The university administration has furthermore demanded that the unregistered organization cease using the word Vanderbilt in its name. ). See, e.g., Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at Tufts University, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 1 (March 18, 2013) (on file with the Commission); InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Grinnell College, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2013) (on file with the Commission); InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, formerly at Rollins College, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2013) (on file with the Commission); InterVarsity Asian-American Christian Fellowship (IV-AACF) at Vanderbilt University, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (March 18, 2013) (on file with the Commission). 243 Transcript at ( at Hastings there is no CLS chapter because of this. Other organizations have also suffered the end of an organization on a particular campus whenever that group has been derecognized ). 244 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, formerly at Rollins College, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 1 (2013) (on file with the Commission).

103 Commissioners Statements 93 As I have expressed in the past, I support a robust interpretation of the First Amendment. My description of the harassment suffered by Christian students is not intended to suggest that other students speech should be squelched. In regard to state universities, administrators should consider the possibility that their refusal to allow religious student groups to set criteria for leaders may constitute an Establishment Clause violation. When a university tells a religious student group what they may or may not require of a leader, they are telling the group how to choose their ministers. The university is also setting the parameters for acceptable religious beliefs. When a university says that a student religious organization cannot require its leaders to believe x, it is saying either that x is unimportant or that x is abhorrent. The university is saying, You may have your little variation on the religion of secularism but your ultimate allegiance must be to secularism and therefore you may not believe x. 245 Public universities attempts to set membership and leadership criteria for student religious organizations are in tension with the spirit of Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. Although InterVarsity, CLS, and similar organizations are not churches in the traditional sense they are religious organizations that engage in many of the same activities as do traditional churches. They organize worship services, Bible studies, mentoring programs, religious retreats, and so on. Particularly in evangelical Christianity, which tends to have loose church structures, para-church organizations like InterVarsity are almost indistinguishable from churches. Student leaders of The college s decision to remove InterVarsity has had a major impact on religious, especially evangelical, students at Rollins. In late January of 2013, a month before the Board s final decision was made, a group of students were reading the Bible together in the common area of a residential hall. This informal group included residents of the dorm, as well as a few other students who were present at the request of the residents. When an RA saw them gathered together, they were disbanded and the non-resident students were asked to leave the hall. The RA was acting on the behalf of the college s overseeing office of Residential Life, citing that the group was acting like InterVarsity in that it was conducting a Bible study with individuals of the same beliefs. It should be noted that the students who were meeting did not share the same faith background, and that they were not meeting to promote the organization of InterVarsity. In a subsequent meeting with the office of Residential Life, a student was informed that the decision to disband the group was in the spirit of the decision made by the college concerning InterVarsity. When the decision was reviewed by upper level administration, the reasoning changed: students could not meet regularly in a dorm common space. However, there does not seem to have been any action taken against any informal groups of students who meet regularly to study course materials. In the meantime, students have honored both decisions and have not gathered in residential halls. See also InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Tufts University, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 1 (March 18, 2013) (on file with the Commission). The opposition to TCF was not limited to the student judiciary though. A group of students was formed with the express purpose of seeing the group removed, and they called themselves the Committee Against Religious Exclusion (CARE). Members of CARE came to TCF meetings to discourage freshmen from attending the group, chalked disparaging remarks about the TCF on campus walkways, and wrote vitriolic op-eds in the campus paper. Again it is important to note that TCF had not acted out in any way towards students at Tufts or denied an applicant a place in leadership. They simply existed as a group for evangelical Christians and those exploring the Christian faith. 245 See Colby Statement, infra at

104 94 Peaceful Coexistence Report these groups, although not ministers in the way we typically think of them, fulfill many of the same functions. 246 Therefore, by establishing what criteria student groups may and may not use in selecting their student leaders, universities are in a very real sense selecting ministers. This public universities may not do without violating both Religion Clauses. 247 Given that employment discrimination laws are not even implicated in these situations, only a university nondiscrimination policy, it seems that Hosanna-Tabor would apply with extra force. And even though private universities are not under the same constraints it would be wise for them to respect their students religious beliefs. University officials will fall back on CLS v. Martinez. However, as Kim Colby wrote, there were very particular circumstances in CLS v. Martinez that will not exist in every case. 248 Furthermore, even on the limited grounds on which CLS v. Martinez was decided, the case was decided wrongly. That does not mean that administrators do not have the weight of the law in their favor of course they do. They should not assume, though, that this will always be the case, or that a court cannot distinguish their own case from Martinez and rule against them. As Professor John Inazu notes, Martinez has minimal analysis. 249 Strangely, even though it would seem obvious that rules governing group membership would implicate the right of expressive association, Justice Ginsburg collapses the right of free association into the right of free speech with little more analysis than a wave of the hand Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694, 710 (2012) (Thomas, J. concurring) ( in my view, the Religion Clauses require civil courts to apply the ministerial exception and to defer to a religious organization s good-faith understanding of who qualifies as its minister. the Religion Clauses guarantee religious organizations autonomy in matters of internal governance, including the selection of those who will minister the faith. ); Id. at 712 (Alito, J. concurring) ( [The ministerial exception] should apply to any employee who leads a religious organization, conducts worship services or important religious ceremonies or rituals, or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith. ). 247 Id. at 704 (2012). The members of a religious group put their faith in the hands of their ministers. Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group s right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions. 248 See Colby Statement, infra at See Inazu Statement, infra at CLS v. Martinez, 130 S.Ct. 2971, 2985 (2010). CLS would have us engage each line of cases independently, but its expressive-association and free-speech arguments merge: Who speaks on its behalf, CLS reasons, colors what concept is conveyed. See Brief for Petitioner at 35 (expressive association in this case is the functional equivalent of speech itself. ) It therefore makes little sense to treat CLS s speech and association claims as discrete.

105 Commissioners Statements 95 CLS v. Martinez reflects the bare minimum of protection universities must give to religious student groups. Simply because they may enforce nondiscrimination rules against religious groups does not mean that they should do so. It is possible to have a nondiscrimination policy that respects the religious freedom of student groups. 251 Several constitutional rights are implicated in the decision to apply the full breadth of non-discrimination policies to religious groups - freedom of association, freedom of religion, and what Professor Inazu terms the forgotten freedom of assembly. These rights deserve more consideration and protection than universities are affording them. First, instead of thoughtlessly parroting discrimination, universities should consider what discrimination is. In a basic sense, any act of choosing is discrimination - that is why we say people have discriminating tastes. As Professor Richard Garnett writes: When we say that discrimination is wrong, what we actually mean is that wrongful discrimination is wrong, and when we affirm that governments should oppose it, we mean that governments should oppose it when it makes sense, all things considered, and when it is within their constitutionally and morally limited powers, to do so. 252 The first question, then, is whether a religious student group s requirement that its leaders assent to the group s statement of faith (and the behavioral requirements that stem from it) constitutes wrongful discrimination. It does not, because assenting to a group s beliefs is an integral part of leading a group. A belief-based group will no longer be a group if it is forced to admit leaders who disagree with its very reason for existence. The problem, as Judge Kenneth Ripple has written, is that religious student groups are forbidden from discriminating on the basis of religion, which is the entire purpose of their grouping. 253 Is it truly wrongful discrimination for a Muslim group to say that its leaders must be practicing Muslims, or for a Catholic group to say that its leaders must be practicing Catholics? Would it be wrongful discrimination for the campus vegan society to refuse to allow a butcher to lead the group? As Lori Windham writes, the principle at work in Hosanna-Tabor applies here as well: This idea [that religious groups should choose their own leaders] is at work in the Hosanna-Tabor decision, and it should also apply to less formal religious groups such as student groups organizing on college campuses. Without the right to govern their membership policies and select their own leaders, they cannot guarantee that their leaders will embody their message Colby Statement, infra at Richard W. Garnett, Confusion About Discrimination, THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE, April 5, 2012, available at Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 648 F.3d 790, (9th Cir. 2011) (Ripple, J., concurring) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 132 S.Ct (2012). 254 Windham Statement, infra at 288.

106 96 Peaceful Coexistence Report Religious student groups are not engaging in wrongful discrimination because they are discriminating on the basis of belief and conduct, not status. A requirement to abstain from sexual activity outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage applies to all group leaders, regardless of sexual orientation. A heterosexual person cohabitating with a romantic partner would run afoul of the provision just as surely as would a homosexual person cohabitating with a romantic partner. The point is not who you are attracted to, but how you act on that attraction. The universities should consider the constitutional values of freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly that are being sacrificed on the altar of non-discrimination. Religion is more than the bare ability to believe what you will, or to go to church on Sunday. Devout religious believers try to integrate their faith into every area of their lives. Very often, meeting with a dedicated group of fellow believers is one way they strive to accomplish this. It is very difficult to practice a religion alone, particularly when that religion is counter-cultural in one way or another. [R]eligious freedom embodies counter-assimilationist ideals that allow people of different religious faiths to maintain their differences in the face of powerful pressures to conform. 255 When universities make it difficult for student groups to reserve on-campus meeting space and for new students to become aware of the group s existence through student activity fairs and the like, it becomes increasingly difficult for the group to meet and to continue to exist. Especially when students are at university and away from their family and hometown support network, this likely makes it more difficult for them to continue in their faith. The universities have no duty to try to fill the vacuum left by the absence of parents and hometown churches but by making it more difficult for traditional religious groups to exist they subtly undermine their students efforts to adhere to their minority faith. As Professor Inazu writes, eradicating belief-based membership requirements threatens the very existence of these groups. Belief-based membership requirements require line-drawing. Professor McConnell has also observed that genuine pluralism requires group difference, and maintenance of group difference requires that groups have the freedom to exclude, as well as the freedom to dissent. 256 At the very least, nondiscrimination policies drive them out of the public square. Other groups are not threatened by an all-comers policy because their membership largely self-selects. 257 Groups organized around a belief system do not have this luxury. [G]roups that require a commitment to certain beliefs or practices for membership groups like conservative religious organizations will face significant consequences. Because these groups will be unwilling to alter their 255 Inazu Statement, infra at 242, quoting Michael W. McConnell, Free Exercise Revisionism and the Smith Decision, 57 U. CHI. L. REV. 1109, 1139 (1990). 256 Inazu Statement, infra at 243, quoting Michael W. McConnell, The New Establishmentarianism, 75 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 453, 466 (2000). 257 Inazu Statement, infra at 246.

107 Commissioners Statements 97 commitments, the all-comers policy will operate against them like a classic prior restraint ensuring that they are forced out of the forum before their ideas and values ever manifest. 258 Professor Garnett also notes that when we refer to wrongful discrimination we mean that governments should oppose this discrimination when it is within their constitutionally and morally limited powers. Believing, as I do, that CLS v. Martinez was wrongly decided, I do not believe it is within the government s power (when public or publicly-funded universities are involved) to tell religious groups what they may believe and who they may select as their leader. Aside from the constitutional issues universities certainly have no moral right to tell religious groups what they may believe and who they may select as their leaders. Perhaps, then, they should exercise modesty and allow religious student groups to organize themselves as they wish. VI. Sexual Orientation Discrimination and Racial Discrimination Most of the moral authority of the gay marriage movement comes from its superficial similarity to racial discrimination. This analogy is flawed. To say so is deeply unpopular but the difference lies in the fact that race is an immutable characteristic and sexual behavior (of any type) is a behavior. This is not to say that sexual orientation is a choice, only that the decision to act on that sexual orientation is a choice. My colleagues state in Finding 7.4: a doctrine that distinguishes between beliefs (which should be protected) and conduct (which should conform to the law), and thus acknowledge a distinction between belief and conduct. The same distinction exists between sexual inclinations (of whatever stripe) and sexual behavior. Cohabiting heterosexual couples who go to court to force landlords to stifle their religious objections and rent to them are likewise forcing others to approve of their behavior. 259 A heterosexual couple s decision to cohabit (and presumably engage in sexual intercourse) is a choice, just as a gay couple s decision to engage in a sexual relationship is a choice. In contrast, no one has the ability to choose to stop being black or white. It is an immutable characteristic. In many of the situations involving discrimination against same-sex couples the religious party has made it clear that they do not object to serving a gay or lesbian person, but rather object to being forced to condone the person s sexual behavior. The religious party is happy to serve and associate with the gay or lesbian person in other contexts but believes it is sinful to assist in celebrating or condoning their sexual behavior Id. 259 See Smith v. Fair Employment & Housing Com n., 913 P.2d 909 (Cal. 1996); see also Donohue v. Fair Employment & Housing Com n., 2 Cal. Rptr.2d. 32 (Cal. App. 2 Dist. 1991). 260 Let Him Bake Cake in Freedom, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE (Jan. 29, 2014), available at Defendants motion for partial summary judgment on claims against Barronelle Stutzman in her personal capacity, State of Washington v. Arlene s Flowers and Ingersoll v. Arlene s Flowers, No , 3-4 (Sup. Ct. of Washington, Benton County 2013).

108 98 Peaceful Coexistence Report This is where Professor Alan Brownstein s suggested framework for balancing the rights of gay and lesbian couples with the rights of religious believers is helpful. As he notes, in a pluralistic society we must respect the other s right to be wrong and give them space to live their lives. 261 Professor Richard Epstein argues that a reinvigorated right of free association would solve most of these problems. Statutes or ordinances that add sexual orientation as a protected class would only further constrain a right already dying of suffocation. I do not support drawing a distinction between non-profit religious groups and for-profit businesses. As in the HHS mandate cases, such distinctions are artificial. However, I do think that Professor Brownstein s suggestions give us a helpful starting point for thinking through these questions as a society. There are instances in which the state s interest in preventing a serious harm would almost certainly outweigh a religious objection. The state certainly has an interest in ensuring that designated next-of-kin have the right to make decisions on behalf of hospitalized patients, whatever the patient s sexual orientation. 262 Likewise, the government has a serious interest in ensuring that gay couples are not stranded in the middle of New Mexico, unable to procure a hotel room. Does the government have a similar interest in ensuring that gay couples have their first choice of wedding cake baker or that Reverend and Mrs. Kettle s bedand-breakfast accepts honeymooning gay couples? Probably not. And unlike the parade of horribles advanced by some commenters, most religious objections to participating in same-sex weddings have been quite narrowly drawn and involve only an objection to assisting with a wedding celebration or to engaging in activities that appear to condone same-sex sexual activity. 263 [W]hen Robert Ingersoll came into the store to ask Barronelle to design the floral arrangements for his wedding ceremony, she politely told him she could not do it because of [her] relationship with Jesus Christ. As she explains, Barronelle believes that biblically marriage is between a man and a woman. After prayer and thoughtful consideration, Barronelle concluded that her religious beliefs prohibit her from participating in a same-sex union by using her artistic talents to create floral arrangements for the ceremony. Stutzman politely and respectfully told Robert that she could not create the floral arrangements for his wedding because of her faith and then the two chitchatted for a while. She gave Robert recommendations for other florists, they hugged, and Mr. Ingersoll left the store. It never occurred to Barronelle that someone might consider her decision not to create floral arrangements for Robert Ingersoll s wedding as illegal. Barronelle has gladly served gay and lesbian clients for many years, expressing the same warm demeanor and artistic passion to them as she did all other clients. Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. Freed were no exception. Indeed, they were longstanding clients of Arlene s Flowers and Barronelle had served them for nearly nine years, knowing full well they were gay. But she could not participate in a same-sex marriage ceremony as a matter of conscience because of her deeply held, biblical belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. (citations omitted) 261 Brownstein Statement, infra at Id. at ; see also Lambda Legal, Peaceful coexistence Freedom of Worship is not a License to Discriminate, at 12 (April 21, 2013) (on file with the Commission). 263 Lambda Legal, Peaceful coexistence Freedom of Worship is not a License to Discriminate, Comment to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 12 (April 21, 2013) (on file with the Commission).

109 Commissioners Statements 99 It is in this respect the seriousness of the harm and the resulting weight of the government s interest that these situations involving gay and lesbian couples are unlike that in Heart of Atlanta Motel. 264 Unlike African-Americans in the 1960s, there is probably no part of the country in which gays and lesbians are unable to find lodging for hundreds of miles. This is despite the fact that sexual orientation is not protected under Title VII. The harm they suffer is dignitary harm because a certain baker or photographer or wedding venue will not, as a matter of conscience, assist them in celebrating their wedding. This is not a matter of driving through the night because there are no hotel rooms that will accommodate you. It is easy to go down the street or to the next county to a different baker or photographer. There is not a constitutional right to have your first-choice wedding cake. This is not to say that being denied a service because someone believes your behavior is morally problematic is inconsequential. But that dignitary harm will become increasingly inescapable for all of us given our increasingly pluralistic society. Chai Feldblum addresses the dignitary harm inflicted: If I am denied a job, an apartment, a room at a hotel, a table at a restaurant, or a procedure by a doctor because I am a lesbian, that is a deep, intense, and tangible hurt. That hurt is not alleviated because I might be able to go down the street and get a job, an apartment, a hotel room, a restaurant table, or a medical procedure from someone else. The assault to my dignity and my sense of safety in the world occurs when the initial denial happens. That assault is not mitigated by the fact that others might not treat me in the same way. 265 As mentioned above, this dignitary harm is unlike the discrimination suffered by African- Americans in the South, who might have been unable to find a hotel room for hundreds of miles. It is more akin to Rawls s contention that a sense of self-respect is necessary to pursue one s lifeplan, and that self-respect normally depends upon the respect of others. 266 Statements such as Feldblum s reflect a sense that someone s refusal to serve a customer because of religious objections to the person s sexual behavior reflects a lack of respect for a gay or lesbian person s choices and life-plan. Demands by same-sex couples that objecting vendors serve them apparently reflect a need for public validation of lifestyle choices. Tolerance, or even a willingness to serve them in some contexts but not others, is apparently insufficient. Feldblum s admission that she can go down the street to another vendor illustrates that pure homophobia, as opposed to a religiously-based refusal to assist with certain aspects of homosexual relationships, is not remotely as pervasive or intense as was racial discrimination. 264 Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S., 379 U.S. 241 (1964). 265 Feldblum, supra note 2 at John Rawls, A THEORY OF JUSTICE 155 (1999).

110 100 Peaceful Coexistence Report As Professor Brownstein wrote in his statement he does not support analogizing discrimination against same-sex couples to racial discrimination because racism has played such a uniquely invidious role in American history. The goal of purging racial discrimination has no equal and no counterpart. 267 The disparity between the harms suffered by the two groups is perhaps why arguments that robust religious freedom protections will lead to a harmfully segregated and contentious society are unconvincing. 268 Racial segregation was mandated by law and enforced by violence. It was sometimes impossible for businesses to serve an integrated clientele even if they wanted to. 269 No state in the union has a law that says, You may not serve gay and lesbian customers. Neither do angry mobs attack gay and lesbian couples who present themselves at wedding cake shops. (It is in fact more likely that angry mobs will attack the businesses of religious dissenters.) 270 We will have a more contentious society if we force people to contribute their talents to events and to appear to condone behavior they believe is fundamentally immoral. In this instance, it is more conducive to civil harmony to allow people to freely exercise their religious convictions. This holds true whether the situation at issue is a baker who declines to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple or a landlady who declines to rent an apartment to an unmarried heterosexual couple. VII. Justice Scalia s Prescience It was Justice Scalia s melancholy fate to serve as our American Cassandra. This is no slur on the justice but an observation on our society. 271 As long ago as 1996, he characterized the majority s decision in Romer as an act, not of judicial judgment, but of political will, 272 and questioned how state denial of preferential treatment for gays and lesbians differed from state 267 Brownstein Statement, infra at Lambda Legal, Peaceful coexistence Freedom of Worship is not a License to Discriminate (April 21, 2013), Appendix A, at 12 (on file with the Commission). 269 Bernstein, supra note 3 at 42 (2003). [I]n the South, [] state and local government remained firmly in the hands of segregationists who could pressure businesses to retain Jim Crow. Federal antidiscrimination law instead provided business owners - of whom many had found Jim Crow to be a costly nuisance - with the wherewithal to integrate, by freeing them from the threat of retaliation by local officials. 270 Madeline Buckley, Threat tied to RFRA prompt Indiana pizzeria to close its doors, INDIANAPOLIS STAR, Apr. 3, 2015, available at Remember that Cassandra did indeed possess the gift of prophecy thanks to Apollo, but the god cursed her so she would never be believed. 272 Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 653 (1996).

111 Commissioners Statements 101 prohibition of polygamy. 273 In Lawrence v. Texas, Justice Scalia wrote that the majority s decision overruling Bowers called all morals legislation into question, including laws banning same-sex marriage, 274 and that Justice O Connor s effort to salvage a basis for state preference for traditional opposite-sex marriages would likely be unavailing. 275 And in United States v. Windsor, Justice Scalia wrote: The penultimate sentence of the majority s opinion is a naked declaration that [t]his opinion and its holding are confined to those couples joined in same-sex marriages by the State. I have heard such bald, unreasoned disclaimer[s] before. When the Court declared a constitutional right to homosexual sodomy, we were assured that the case had nothing, nothing at all to do with whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter. Now we are told that DOMA is invalid because it demeans the couple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects, - with an accompanying citation of Lawrence. It takes real cheek for today s majority to assure us, as it is going out the door, that a constitutional requirement to give formal recognition to same-sex marriage is not at issue here - when what has preceded that assurance is a lecture on how superior the majority s moral judgment in favor of same-sex marriage is to the Congress s hateful moral judgment against it. I promise you this: the only thing that will confine the Court s holding is its sense of what it can get away with [citations omitted]. 276 Justice Scalia was right. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the majorities in Romer, Lawrence, and Windsor believed same-sex marriage to be a moral imperative, although they were unable to root it in any firm constitutional footing. Perhaps fearing a Roe-like backlash that might have led to a successful constitutional amendment, however, they proceeded incrementally. The incremental approach has two benefits: one, it gradually accustomed the public to an ever-more radical conception of sexual liberty; two, it allowed a new generation to come of age (and the older, more conservative generation to die off) in a society that in law and popular culture treated discrimination on the basis of same-sex sexual conduct as the equivalent 273 Id. at Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 590 (2003) (Scalia, J., dissenting). State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today s decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding.... The impossibility of distinguishing homosexuality from other traditional morals offenses is precisely why Bowers rejected the rational-basis challenge. The law, it said, is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the Due Process Clause, the courts will be very busy indeed [citations omitted]. 275 Lawrence, 539 U.S. at U.S. v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675, 2709 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting).

112 102 Peaceful Coexistence Report of racial discrimination. 277 Then in Obergefell v. Hodges the Court delivered the killing stroke to state support for traditional marriage, grandly declaring, The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity. 278 I join Justice Scalia in declaring that if I were forced to sign onto an opinion that began with such meaningless twaddle, I would put a bag over my head. 279 Whatever it might be, Constitutional law it is not. There is likewise little reason to doubt Justice Scalia s prediction that the expanded right to sexual liberty will stop at same-sex marriage. Justice Roberts too has come to share Justice Scalia s gloomy outlook on the prospective constitutionalization of a right to polygamy. 280 There is little reason not to share their pessimistic outlook. For example, in late 2013, a federal district court ruled that Utah s prohibition of polygamy had no rational basis and was therefore unconstitutional. 281 Almost simultaneously there has been a raft of articles in mainstream publications discussing the prevalence of polyamory and suggesting it is the next sexual revolution. 282 As alternative lifestyles continue to gain public acceptance, they too will come under the aegis of antidiscrimination laws and create their own religious liberty conflicts. More pertinent to this statement is the threat Obergefell poses to religious liberty. There have already been many conflicts between same-sex marriages and religious liberty. Now that samesex marriage has been elevated to the status of a constitutional right these conflicts will become more common and more severe. In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Roberts objected that same-sex marriage was nowhere contemplated in the Constitution. Rather, the Court s decision in Obergefell reflected the policy preferences of a majority of the Court, which through the exercise of raw judicial power they elevated to the status of a fundamental right. 283 Justice Scalia echoed the Chief Justice s concerns: 277 Children born when Romer was decided in 1996 turned 18 in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2593 (2015)(Kennedy, J.). 279 Id. at 22 (Scalia, J., dissenting). If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity, I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie. 280 Id. at (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). 281 Brown v. Buhman, 947 F.Supp (D.Utah 2013). 282 See, e.g., Kristen V. Brown, Web of Love, S.F. CHRON., Mar. 2, 2014, available at Emanuella Grinberg, Polyamory: When three isn t a crowd, CNN, Oct. 26, 2013, available at Obergefell, 135 S.Ct. at 2612 (Roberts, C.J., dissenting).

113 Commissioners Statements 103 [I]t is not of special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact - and the furthest extension one can even imagine - of the Court s claimed power to create liberties that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves. 284 This is dangerous. If the Supreme Court can create fundamental rights it can also destroy them. 285 If [t]he generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all its dimensions, 286 and therefore we must defer to our somberly-garbed philosopher-kings judgment as to the boundaries of liberty, what is to prevent five members of the Supreme Court from determining that the founding generation simply did not understand how oppressive religion could be? That is, in fact, what my colleagues suggest in the findings and recommendations included in this report. My colleagues state in Finding 7, 2) throughout history, religious doctrines accepted at one time later become viewed as discriminatory, with religions changing accordingly; 3) without exemptions, groups would not use the pretext of religious doctrines to discriminate;... 6) a basic [civil] right as important as the freedom to marry should not be subject to religious beliefs. My colleagues do not even pretend to neutrality and instead simply declare that they are wiser than the accumulated wisdom of millennia of the world s major faiths. It appears from the recommendations that they believe religious beliefs and practices that conflict with the sexual revolution should be cabined as much as possible. The entire point of having limited and enumerated constitutional powers and a Bill of Rights was to restrain the power of government and to protect inalienable rights regardless of changing fashions. In the wake of Obergefell, it is impossible to be confident that those limits and protections will last. Justice Alito has no such confidence, warning, If a bare majority of Justices can invent a new right and impose that right The majority s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court s precedent. The majority expressly disclaims judicial caution and omits even a pretense of humility, openly relying on its desire to remake society according to its own new insight into the nature of injustice. 284 Id. at 2627 (Scalia, J., dissenting). 285 Id. at (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). 286 Id. at 2598 (Kennedy, J.).

114 104 Peaceful Coexistence Report on the rest of the country, the only real limit on what future majorities will be able to do is their own sense of what those with political power and cultural influence are willing to tolerate. 287 And the liberty that the Obergefell majority creates differs from the older and earlier liberties in that it is not the right not to be forced to do something, but the right to force others to do something for you. As the Chief Justice wrote, Our cases have consistently refused to allow litigants to convert the shield provided by constitutional liberties into a sword to demand positive entitlements from the State. 288 Justice Thomas was even more explicit, stating, Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood as freedom from government action, not entitlement to government benefits.... Yet the majority invokes our Constitution in the name of a liberty that the Founders would not have recognized, to the detriment of the liberty they sought to protect. 289 Justice Thomas later discusses why Loving v. Virginia is inapposite - namely, because the Lovings were prosecuted for cohabiting together in Virginia after being married in another jurisdiction. 290 No same-sex couples were being threatened with imprisonment for cohabiting together. In their dissenting opinions, which Justice Scalia joined, Justices Thomas and Alito both warned about the effect same-sex marriage will have on religious liberty. Justice Thomas warned: In our society, marriage is not simply a governmental institution; it is a religious institution as well. Today s decision may change the former, but it cannot change the latter. It appears all but inevitable the two will come into conflict, particularly as individuals and churches are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples. The majority appears unmoved by that inevitability. It makes only a weak gesture toward religious liberty in a single paragraph. And even that gesture indicates a misunderstanding of religious liberty in our Nation s tradition. Religious liberty is about more than just the protection for religious organizations and persons... as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths. Religious liberty is about freedom of action in matters of religion generally, and the scope of that liberty is directly correlated to the civil restraints placed upon religious practice. [citations omitted] 291 Justice Alito echoed him, stating: 287 Obergefell, 135 S.Ct. at 2643 (Alito, J., dissenting). 288 Id. at 2612 (Roberts, C.J., dissenting). 289 Id. at 2631 (Thomas, J., dissenting). 290 Id. at (Thomas, J., dissenting). 291 Id. at 2638 (Thomas, J., dissenting).

115 Commissioners Statements 105 Perhaps recognizing how its reasoning may be used, the majority attempts, toward the end of its opinion, to reassure those who oppose same-sex marriage that their beliefs will be respected. We will soon discover whether this proves to be true. I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools. 292 There is no reason to doubt the Justices vision of the future. The majority s findings and recommendations lend credence to the Justices warnings. VIII. Why Should Religious Liberty Take Precedence? The core of the dispute between partisans of sexual liberty and traditional religious believers is whether the two rights are of equal importance. In our constitutional order, the first reason that religious liberty takes precedence over sexual liberty is that this is enshrined in our Constitution. The First Amendment establishes the right to free exercise of religion, free speech, free association, and freedom of assembly. It does not establish the right to coerce other people into expressing approval of one s self-expression. But why does the Constitution enshrine religious liberty as a first freedom? And why should we continue to treat it as a fundamental right that often trumps conflicting rights or government interests? 293 After all, religious liberty sounds nice but nondiscrimination sounds nice too. The answer is that we accept that religious claims may actually be true, and if they are true, a person s duty to God may be seen as weightier than his duty to the state. 294 It is not unreasonable to believe in God, and it is impossible for the government or any person to remain truly undecided on the question. Either the government will act as though God may exist, or the government will act as though God does not exist. And for constitutional purposes it seems likely that the Framers assumed that God did exist though they differed mightily about specifics, and that is why they enshrined religious freedom in the First Amendment. 295 If the Framers 292 Obergefell, 135 S.Ct. at (Alito, J., dissenting). 293 See Brian Leiter, WHY TOLERATE RELIGION 7 (2013). 294 Michael Stokes Paulsen, Is Religious Freedom Irrational? Reviewing Why Tolerate Religion? By Brian Leiter, 112 MICH. L. REV ( 2014). 295 Michael Stokes Paulsen, The Priority of God, 39 PEPP. L. REV. 1159, (2013). We protect religious liberty on the premise that God is real and that the true priorities of God trump the ordinary commands of man....

116 106 Peaceful Coexistence Report assumed that God exists, and if the Establishment Clause is predicated on that assumption, then there is no Establishment Clause violation if the present government also assumes the possibility of God s existence and therefore avoids burdening religious practice and expression. 296 As recently as twenty years ago there was a broad societal consensus in favor of giving heightened protection to religious liberty. 297 That is why RFRA was enacted after the Smith decision. Of course, a person cannot simply brandish, I have a duty to God and triumph every time his religious practices run afoul of state requirements. Nor is such an outcome contemplated under RFRA. RFRA s compelling interest test is an attempt to balance the religious believer s duty to God with society s need for public order. RFRA simply places the burden on the government to prove that its interest is compelling and that infringing on the religious practice is the least restrictive means of achieving its goal. Religious belief and conscience take precedence over a person s self-expression. Conscience is more than self-will. As the nineteenth-century intellectual John Henry Newman wrote: Conscience has rights because it has duties; but in this age, with a large portion of the public, it is the very right and freedom of conscience to dispense with conscience, to ignore a Lawgiver and Judge, to be independent of unseen obligations.... Conscience is a stern monitor, but in this century it has been superseded by a counterfeit, which the eighteen centuries prior to it had never heard of, and could not have mistaken for it if they had. It is the right of selfwill. 298 The word religion, in the original sense of the term employed by the Constitution (and still in common usage today), necessarily involves some sort of conception of God (or gods) and the obligations of man and restrictions on conduct thought to flow from rightful devotion to the prior and superior claims of God. It is, necessarily, something more than just the projection of the individual s inner sense of self, value, ethics, or morals, or of a social, moral, or political philosophy that involves no such transcendent reality or creative force. As I have written elsewhere, there is probably no better operational definition of religion in this constitutional sense than the one supplied by the original Virginia Declaration of Rights and employed by James Madison in his Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments: religion is the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it. (This is not direct legislative history of the meaning of the First Amendment. But it is good contemporaneous evidence of common public usage of the term religion at or about the time the Constitution was adopted. 296 Id. at Ramesh Ponnuru, Cross Purposes, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE, Mar. 10, 2014, available at The old, reactionary conception of liberty championed by Ted Kennedy really did regard religious liberty as a trump, in many instances, over laws that were enacted democratically to advance other values. The same is true of course of any other liberty: If it does not sometimes act as a trump, it does not exist; and if it does not often act as a trump, it hardly exists. 298 John Henry Newman, Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans Considered A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk 156 (1897).

117 Commissioners Statements 107 Professor Robert George, a former member of this Commission, elaborates: Conscience, as Newman understood it, is the very opposite of autonomy in the modern liberal sense. It is not a writer of permission slips.... conscience is one s last best judgment specifying the bearing of moral principles one grasps, yet in no way makes up for oneself, on concrete proposals for action. 299 This conception of conscience stands in stark contrast to the lazy conception of conscience that is often tossed about, where Conscience as self-will identifies permissions, not obligations. It licenses behavior by establishing that one doesn t feel bad about doing it. 300 A conscience that imposes duties and does not serve as a rationalization of one s behavior is a stern taskmaster. Undoubtedly, even those who strive to conform their behavior to the dictates of conscience sometimes lapse into using conscience to justify their preferred behavior. But it is important to have a correct conception of what conscience is so that we can discuss why it deserves deference. It also helps us think about why some claims of conscience, such as pacifism, deserve deference, whereas others, such as polygamy, do not. IX. The Danger of Leviathan One reason clashes between religious liberty and nondiscrimination provisions have become commonplace is because of the growth of government. When government - both federal and state - confined itself to performing only a few functions, there was room for religious believers to organize their lives in accordance with their beliefs. When government expands into every aspect of life, conflicts between the dictates of God and the dictates of man increase. Ilya Shapiro writes: The cultural flashpoint surrounding wedding vendors pleas for toleration is evidence of a more insidious process whereby the government foments social conflict as it expands its control into areas of life that we used to consider public yet not governmental.... Indeed, it s government s relationship to public life that s changing - in the places that are beyond the intimacies of the home but still far removed from the state, like churches, charities, social clubs, small businesses, and even public 299 Robert P. George, CONSCIENCE AND ITS ENEMIES, (2013). 300 Id. at 113; see also Newman, supra note 298 at 154. This view of conscience, I know, is very different from that ordinarily taken of it, both by the science and literature, and by the public opinion, of this day. It is founded on the doctrine that conscience is the voice of God, whereas it is fashionable on all hands now to consider it in one way or another a creation of man.... Conscience is not a long sighted selfishness, nor a desire to be consistent with oneself; but it is a messenger from Him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by His representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ, a prophet in its informations, a monarch in its peremptoriness, a priest in its blessings and anathemas, and, even though the eternal priesthood throughout the Church could cease to be, in it the sacerdotal principle would remain and would have a sway.

118 108 Peaceful Coexistence Report corporations that are nevertheless part of the private sector. Under the influence of the Obama administration, the Left is weaving government through these private institutions, using them to shape American life according to its vision. 301 Therefore, one way of defusing the tension between religious liberty and nondiscrimination provisions is to reduce the size and scope of government. As Commissioner Heriot noted at the briefing, the problem with universities and colleges refusing to recognize religious organizations could be partly ameliorated if the schools stopped collecting mandatory student activity fees and doling them out to preferred organizations. Similarly, the Affordable Care Act created a previously unknown crisis of conscience. If the government had not mandated that all employers with a certain number of employees provide health insurance or pay heavy fines, the cases challenging the contraceptive mandate never would have materialized. X. The Findings and Recommendations The findings and recommendations in this report should serve as an alarm to liberty-loving Americans. I voted in favor of these findings and recommendations only because this report has already been delayed for over three years, and was concerned that a no vote from me would be used as an excuse to further delay the report. The findings and recommendations elevate the nondiscrimination laws, which with the exception of the Fourteenth Amendment are mere statutes, not constitutional provisions, over the provisions of the Constitution. The majority writes, Civil rights protections ensuring nondiscrimination, as embodied in the Constitution, laws, and policies, are of preeminent importance in American jurisprudence. 302 Mere policies are now of preeminent importance - a distinction not shared, it appears, by the poor Free Exercise Clause. A bit later, the majority states, Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights. 303 The First Amendment s Establishment Clause constricts the ability of government actors to curtail private citizens rights to the protections of non-discrimination laws and policies. Although the First Amendment s Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) limit the ability of government actors to impede individuals from practicing their religious beliefs, religious exemptions from non-discrimination laws and policies must be weighed carefully and defined narrowly on a fact-specific basis Ilya Shapiro, Against Conscience Taxes, CATO INSTITUTE, Sept. 10, 2015, available at USCCR Report, Finding #1, infra at USCCR Report, Finding #3, infra at USCCR Report, Finding #4, infra at. 25.

119 Commissioners Statements 109 The fundamental problem with the approach embodied in the findings and recommendations is that it is in practice, if not intent, hostile to religion. It also elevates the right to sexual liberty over the right to religious liberty. This is the precise opposite of the choice enshrined in our Constitution. That decision cannot be truly undone by civil rights statutes or even the whims of the Supreme Court but only through the amendment process. However, statements such as the following make it clear that, in their view, religion is only acceptable if it conforms to the dictates of modern liberalism: The Commission endorses the briefing panelists statements as summarized at page 26 of the Report in support of these Findings: Further, specifically with regard to number (2) above, religious doctrines that were widely accepted at one time came to be deemed highly discriminatory, such as slavery, homosexuality bans, and unequal treatment of women, and that what is considered within the purview of religious autonomy at one time would likely change [emphasis added]. 305 I will address each of the report s Recommendations in turn. Overly-broad religious exemptions unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires. 306 This recommendation is so muddled that it is almost impossible to make heads or tails of it. The underlying assumption is that there is some Platonic ideal of nondiscrimination laws that must not be marred by overly-broad religious exemptions. That simply is not the case. All nondiscrimination laws are the product of balancing competing interests and competing costs and benefits. And in this case, there are two competing nondiscrimination interests. When examined closely, this recommendation has no substance. However, the main problem with the recommendation is that it misunderstands the applicable law. It takes a few words and phrases from RFRA, mashes them together, and somehow thinks that these tests apply to religious exemptions from nondiscrimination laws. They do not. Narrow tailoring, burden, and so forth only apply when there is government action involved, not private action. And a wedding cake baker restricting his services to opposite-sex couples is private action, not state action. 305 USCCR Report, Finding #7, infra at USCCR Report, Recommendation #1, infra at 26.

120 110 Peaceful Coexistence Report RFRA protects only religious practitioners First Amendment free exercise rights, and it does not limit others freedom from government-imposed religious limitations under the Establishment Clause. 307 I am not sure what this recommendation means but if there is a powerful cabal plotting a Henry VII-style creation of an established church I am glad my colleagues are ready to oppose it. I hope that this recommendation means that my colleagues will defend the rights of churches and religious organizations such as Hosanna-Tabor and the Christian Legal Society to establish criteria for ministers and leaders without encountering government interference and retaliation. In the absence of controlling authority to the contrary such as a state-level, RFRA-type statute, the recognition of religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws and policies should be made pursuant to the holdings of Employment Division v. Smith, which protect religious beliefs rather than conduct. 308 Let us try a thought experiment. In the findings, my colleagues hail the Supreme Court s decision in E.E.O.C. v. Abercrombie, which held that a clothing store violated Title VII when it refused to hire a young Muslim woman who wore a headscarf. Under my colleagues reasoning, should we consider Abercrombie to have actually been in the right? The store did not refuse to hire the applicant because she believed in the tenets of Islam but because she wore a headscarf and that conflicted with the store s Look Policy. 309 The applicant never mentioned her religion during her interview, so the employer did not even know for sure that she was Muslim. The Look Policy of a clothing store like Abercrombie is an important aspect of its business and marketing, and would doubtless be applied if, say, a nun wanted to get a second job and wanted to wear her habit at work. If the majority believes that we should protect belief but not conduct, should we amend Title VII to encompass only belief, and not conduct? And if not, why should Samantha Elauf be entitled to wear her headscarf at work despite it conflicting with her employers desired image, but a small bakery be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and driven out of business for refusing to bake a wedding cake? 310 Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties 307 USCCR Report, Recommendation #2, infra at USCCR Report, Recommendation #3, infra at E.E.O.C. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., 135 S.Ct. 2028, 2031 (2015). 310 George Rede, Sweet Cakes owners pay damages while continuing appeal of $135,000 bias case, THE OREGONIAN, Dec. 28, 2015, available at

121 Commissioners Statements 111 and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination [emphasis added]. 311 States with RFRA-style laws should amend those statutes to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions. States with laws modeled after RFRA must guarantee that those statutes do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights with statusbased discrimination. 312 These parallel recommendations would be nonsensical if they were not so dangerous. RFRA cannot create First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights. Those rights already exist by virtue of the fact that the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause exists, even if the interpretation is contested. This thus represents an attempt to limit both RFRA and the Free Exercise Clause. It is a radical proposal, in that it calls not just for stripping Free Exercise protection from the Hobby Lobbies of America, but for limiting the Free Exercise rights of individuals and religious institutions if they are considered to unduly burden favored classes in some way. XI. The Dangers of Secularist Intolerance We should exercise prudential judgment to protect religious believers First Amendment rights. Refusing to provide robust protection of First Amendment rights is a dangerous narrowing of our freedom. People who live in accordance with their unfashionable religious beliefs will be unable to work in many professions. When a baker or a photographer or a CEO is forced to participate in activities that offend their religious beliefs, what hope is there for a doctor, a counselor, a lawyer? Traditional believers will have very few careers where they can both make a living and live according to their faith. It is an unofficial form of the legal disabilities imposed on English Catholics following the Glorious Revolution. And although these cases are mostly directed toward traditional Christians whose beliefs about sexuality clash with prevailing secularism, there is no reason to think that it will stop there. Secularism is a jealous god, and it will brook no others. 313 Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union made this point when explaining why his organization filed a brief opposing the HHS 311 USCCR Report, Recommendation #4, infra at USCCR Report, Recommendation #5, infra at Roger Trigg, Is Religious Freedom Special?, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at 9 (2013)(on file with the Commission). Religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is, it seems, not to be brought into public places either symbolically or as part of the democratic debate. Religion has always been vulnerable because it poses an authority different from, and sometimes at odds with, secular authority. Even if that authority is democratic, the will of the people, it dislikes being judged by other standards. The vulnerability of religion both on an institutional and individual basis, is a good reason for giving a special emphasis to freedom of religion. Yet it is also clear that once freedom of contract, freedom of conscience or other freedoms are thought sufficient, religion itself becomes marginalised.

122 112 Peaceful Coexistence Report mandate, although Orthodox Judaism does not prohibit contraception: Today, in America, Catholic objections to women s use of contraceptives may be broadly unpopular; tomorrow, it may be circumcision or kosher slaughter that are looked at askance in America, as they are today in Europe. 314 There is an additional danger of which those who would exalt individuals right not to be offended above religious liberty should be aware. As they destroy the moral and religious foundations of law, they also destroy the foundations of their own most cherished ideals. 315 The entire basis for nondiscrimination laws rests on the belief that all people are equal in dignity. Whence comes that dignity? There are few things as obvious in life as that people are unequal - unequal in beauty, unequal in intellect, unequal in virtue. When the America was founded, the Founders located man s freedom and dignity in God. But not just any god - not Baal, not Odin, not Zeus - the God of Christianity and Judaism. 316 Jefferson wrote, all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain. Even Jefferson, one of the least religiously orthodox of the Founders, ascribed to the Judeo-Christian belief that man is created in the image of God, and that is the source of our freedom and dignity. Why should this concern those who would elevate nondiscrimination principles over religious liberty? Because if they destroy the moral and religious assumptions underpinning the idea of 314 Nathan J. Diament, Why the Orthodox Union Supports Religious Exemptions to the Contraceptive Mandate, THE TABLET, Jan. 28, 2014, available at Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Archbishop of Philadelphia, Comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at 3 (2013)(on file with the Commission). Catholic moral convictions about abortion, contraception, the purpose of sexuality and the nature of marriage are rooted not just in revelation, but also in reason and natural law. Human beings have a nature that s not just the product of accident or culture, but inherent, universal and rooted in permanent truths knowable to reason. This understanding of the human person is the grounding of the entire American experiment. If human nature is not much more than modeling clay, and no permanent human nature exists by the hand of a Creator, then natural, unalienable rights obviously can t exist. And no human rights can finally claim priority over the interests of the state. 316 Thomas S. Kidd, GOD OF LIBERTY (2010). Americans faith allowed them to articulate why oppression was wrong in the eyes of God, and it helped them envision a republic where individual freedom could be guided by ancient ideals of the Scriptures: charity, justice, and protection for the weak and poor. Does the national significance of these precepts mean that America was founded as a Christian nation? Yes, in the sense that believers - the majority of whom were Christians of some kind, with an important minority of Jews - played a formative role in the creation of the American Republic. The founders religious agreement was on public values, not private doctrines.

123 Commissioners Statements 113 human dignity, they may accidentally destroy the idea of human dignity itself. The late political scientist Samuel Huntington wrote, Of all the objective elements which define civilizations, however, the most important usually is religion. 317 As discussed earlier in this statement, the effort to force traditional religious believers to bow to certain sexual mores is really an attempt to replace the old faith with the new. But if the old faith is destroyed, and with it the idea of human dignity, the adherents of the new faith may rue the day they did so. Secularists may believe that they are simply expanding the idea of human dignity to encompass various important facets of human behavior, but in so doing they are destroying the foundation of the idea and are unlikely to find a similarly compelling basis. 318 Revolutions often turn on their instigators. The Judeo- Christian belief that man is created in the image of God, the imago Dei, undergirds Jefferson s proclamation that all men are created equal. Despite the failures of its adherents, as is the case with any set of principles, this concept is the root of the traditional Christian belief that people are ends, not means, and that therefore every person - male, female, black, white, disabled, gay, straight - is inherently dignified, despite his undoubted sins and perhaps seemingly dubious prospect of salvation. 319 Without that foundation, the idea that everyone has equal dignity is little more than a polite fiction to be brushed aside for greater convenience. Do you think that the Faith has conquered the World? And that lions no longer need keepers? Do you need to be told that whatever has been, can still be? Do you need to be told that even such modest attainments As you can boast in the way of polite society Will hardly survive the Faith to which they owe their significance? Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order 42 (1996). 318 Roger Scruton, The Future of European Civilization: Lessons for America, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION, Dec. 8, 2015, available at Europe is rapidly jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found nothing to put in the place of it save the religion of human rights. I call this a religion because it is designed expressly to fill the hole in people s worldview that is left when religion is taken away. The notion of a human right purports to offer the ground for moral opinions, for legal precepts, for policies designed to establish order in places where people are in competition and conflict. However, it is itself without foundations. If you ask what religion commands or forbids, you usually get a clear answer in terms of God s revealed law or the Magisterium of the church. If you ask what rights are human or natural or fundamental, you get a different answer depending on whom you ask, and nobody seems to agree with anyone else regarding the procedure for resolving conflicts. Consider the dispute over marriage. Is it a right or not? If so, what does it permit? Does it grant a right to marry a partner of the same sex? And if yes, does it therefore permit incestuous marriage too? The arguments are endless, and nobody knows how to settle them. 319 C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, at 9, available at T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock, VI.

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125 Commissioners Rebuttals 115 Commissioner Gail Heriot Statement and Rebuttal Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill together. -- Edmund Burke The conflicts that can arise between religious conscience and the secular law are many and varied. Some of the nation s best legal minds have written on how the federal and state governments should resolve those conflicts. But no one has ever come up with a systematic framework for doing so at least not one that all Americans can agree on. And perhaps no one ever will. Instead, we have been left to resolve the issues that arise on a more or less case-by-case basis. I am not going to try to create such a framework in this statement. I like to think I know my limitations. One bird s eye comment I can offer is this: The bigger and more complex government becomes, the more conflicts between religious conscience and the duty to comply with the law we can expect. Back when the federal government didn t heavily subsidize both public and private higher education, when it didn t heavily regulate employment relationships, when it didn t have the leading role in financing and delivering healthcare, we didn t need to worry nearly so much about the ways in which conflicts with religious conscience and the law arise. Nobody thought about whether the Sisters of Charity should be given a religious exemption from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, because there was no Obamacare contraceptive mandate. The Roman Catholic Church didn t need the so-called Ministerial Exception to Title VII in order to limit ordinations to men (and to Roman Catholics), because there was no Title VII. The second again bird s eye comment I can make is this: While the targeted religious accommodations approach may sometimes be a good idea, it is not always the best strategy for people of faith. Targeted religious accommodations make it possible for ever-expanding government bureaucracies to divide and conquer. They remove the faith-based objections to their expansive ambitions, thus allowing them to ignore objections that are not based on faith. The bureaucratic juggernaut thus rolls on. People of faith should not allow themselves to become just another special interest that needs to be appeased before the next government expansion is allowed to proceed. They have an interest in ensuring the health of the many institutions of civil society that act as counterweights to the state including not just the Church itself, but also the family, the press, small business and others. They also have an interest in ordered liberty in all its manifestations. A nation in which religious liberty is the only protected freedom is a nation that soon will be without religious liberty too. * * * * *

126 116 Peaceful Coexistence Report From a bird s eye view, let me move to the worm s eye view by sharing my thoughts on the official Findings and Recommendations appended to this report. I believe they do little to illuminate the issues. Sometimes this is because they just don t say much. Recommendation #1, which begins: Consider for example, Overly-broad religious exemptions unduly burden nondiscrimination laws and policies. Yes, of course. But the first trick is figuring out what is overly-broad and what isn t. Only then do we know whether a burden is undue. Note also that the Commission could just as easily have concluded the reverse, Overly-broad nondiscrimination laws and policies unduly burden religious liberty. Or more broadly, Overly broad exceptions to rules unduly burden rules. But what s the rule and what s the exception? Do we live in a nation where the rule is everyone has the right to the free exercise of his or her religion, subject to certain possible exceptions? Or do we live in a nation where everyone has a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability or sexual orientation subject to certain possible exceptions? Suddenly, it s not so easy. Recommendation #1 continues: Federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires. (Emphasis added.) Again, yes, of course. Insofar as applicable law requires them to tailor religious exceptions narrowly, they must do so. But that s the issue, isn t it? When, if ever, does applicable law require that religious exceptions be narrowly tailored? And when should it? The recommendation gives no clue on those questions. It makes no claim that any particular statute or Constitutional provision contains such a requirement. The recommendation indicates only that if a statute does contain such a requirement (and it is consistent with the Constitution) or if the Constitution contains such a requirement, that requirement must be obeyed by courts and executive branch policymakers. 1 Note that the Commission could just as easily have stated that courts, lawmakers and policy-makers must tailor anti-discrimination exceptions to religious liberty protections as 1 The recommendation refers not just to courts and executive branch policymakers, but also to lawmakers, who are obviously not bound by statutory requirements of this type. They create statutes and can thus always repeal such requirements or promulgate new statutes that do not contain such requirements. While they must do what the Constitution requires, they are not otherwise bound.

127 Commissioners Rebuttals 117 narrowly as applicable law requires. We d still be in the position of having to figure out whether applicable law does indeed or should require any such thing. Recommendation #2 states: RFRA protects only religious practitioners First Amendment free exercise rights, and it does not limit others freedom from government-imposed religious limitations under the Establishment Clause. If you are having trouble figuring out what Recommendation #2 is trying to get at, you are not alone. Perhaps it is trying to say that Congress, in attempting to protect the religious liberty of some, must take care not to violate the Constitution s Establishment Clause, which prohibits any law respecting an establishment of religion. If so, again, yes, of course. But, again, the difficulty is in the details. Everybody with even a passing understanding of the Constitution knows that Congress must steer a path between the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. 2 How to do that is not so easy; volumes have been written on it. Yet a simple, foolproof technique for doing so has never been discovered and perhaps never will be, since cases continue to reach the Supreme Court in need of resolution. This report does nothing to help resolve those issues. Recommendation #3 states: In the absence of controlling authority to the contrary such as a state-level, RFRA-style statute, the recognition of religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws and policies should be made pursuant to the holding of Employment Division v. Smith, which protects religious beliefs rather than conduct. Two things: First, like some of the other recommendations, this one is worded in such a way as to sound significant, but in the end it doesn t mean much. It states that in the absence of law pointing in the other direction one should apply Smith. But often there is authority pointing in the other direction (and when there isn t, the legislature may create such a law). It can come not only from RFRA-style statutes, but also from state constitutions, whose religious liberty guarantees may be very different from the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution as interpreted in Smith. It can also come from the nondiscrimination statutes themselves, in the form of an explicit or implicit requirement for religious accommodation (or in the form of broader exceptions into which religious accommodations may fit). For example, Title VII forbids sex discrimination in employment, but contains an exception for bona fide occupational qualifications based on sex. Might such a provision permit a specialty restaurateur whose religion forbids his co-religionists from eating food prepared by women to hire only men? The Commission s recommendation surely provides us with no assistance in answering that question. 2 For example, if the federal government funds religious schools, is it a violation of the Establishment Clause? Or is it a violation of the Free Exercise Clause to fund all schools, except religious schools?

128 118 Peaceful Coexistence Report Second, the distinction in Smith is being misrepresented here. Rather than drawing a distinction, as my colleagues suggest, between religious belief and conduct, the Court specifically stated that some conduct is indeed covered by the Free Exercise Clause. "It would doubtless be unconstitutional, for example, to ban the casting of statues that are to be used for worship purposes or to prohibit bowing down before a golden calf," the Court wrote. 3 Instead, Smith held that the State of Oregon could refuse unemployment benefits to a person fired for using peyote in violation of state law, even though the peyote was being used in connection with a religious ritual. It did so on the ground that Oregon s prohibition was a law of general applicability not passed for the purpose of curtailing the performance of that ritual, not on the ground that the use of peyote was conduct rather than belief. In the Smith Court s view, Oregon had the power to exempt persons engaged in religious ritual from otherwise valid prohibitions of general applicability, but it was not required to exempt them. That is where RFRA comes in. It was passed to overrule Smith by requiring legislators to accommodate religious conscience. Recommendation #4 states: Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination. (Emphasis added.) The use of the word clarify is odd here. What the Commission is actually proposing is that Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S.Ct (2014), which has already held that RFRA applies to closely held corporations, be overruled by Congress. Surely the Commission is within the scope of its authority to recommend that. But it is inexcusable for the Commission s majority to fail to point out the fact that it is calling for Hobby Lobby to be overruled. Of course, Congress can choose to amend RFRA in this manner. But why would it want to? It is surely not clear why an individual should be protected by RFRA when she chooses to operate her business as a sole proprietorship, but not when she chooses to operate it as a closelyheld corporation. The ability to incorporate one s business is useful. It allows an entrepreneur to protect her personal assets in case the business fails. To create policy under which people of faith cannot operate as a closely held corporation without losing their rights under RFRA seems pointless and arbitrary. The part of the recommendation that suggests that Congress clarify that RFRA creates the right to religious accommodation only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination is also wrongheaded. 3 Smith at

129 Commissioners Rebuttals 119 Sure, it avoids the obvious questions: What constitutes an undue burden? What s due? But more important, it ignores the fact that Congress has already laid out the standard by which conflicts between religious conscience and federal law are to be resolved. That standard cuts in the opposite direction from where my colleagues are attempting to lead. RFRA s Section 3 demonstrates that rather than asking for a clarification, they are asking for a reversal of policy, which is something they should be willing to own up to. That section states: In general a) Government shall not substantially burden a person s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b) of this section. b) Exception Government may substantially burden a person s exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person 1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and 2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000bb-1. 4 That is a very tough standard, tougher than many would have liked. But it is the course Congress has taken. Under it, Federal laws and other actions (including anti-discrimination laws) are to be interpreted to bend over backwards to protect religious liberty, not lean in the direction of minimizing the scope of religious liberty exemptions. Congress has taken the position that federal actions that substantially burden religious exercise are inappropriate unless the application of that burden is justified by a compelling government interest and (2) the least restrictive means of furthering that interest. When is a religious accommodation an undue burden on a law prohibiting status-based discrimination? Congress has created a standard under which the answer to that question will be hardly ever. Why doesn t Recommendation #4 acknowledge this? 4 This section was originally intended to cover both federal and state law. In City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), the Court decided that Congress had overstepped its authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment in subjecting state law to this standard. Only the courts have the authority to define what is or is not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. While Congress has a certain level of prophylactic power under Section 5, its response must be congruent and proportional to the problem. The upshot of this for the purposes of the report is that RFRA applies only to federal law and not to state law. On the other hand, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ( RLUIPA ), 42 U.S.C. 2000cc, et seq., applies to state law, and some states have adopted RFRA-style laws.

130 120 Peaceful Coexistence Report Recommendation #5 is essentially the same as Recommendation #4 except it applies to states and it inexplicably uses mandatory language: States with RFRA-style laws should amend those statutes to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions. States with laws modeled after RFRA must guarantee those statutes do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights with status-based discrimination. (Emphasis added.) First, I am again disturbed by the use of the word clarify here. Whether RFRA-style state laws were intended to apply beyond individuals and religious institutions is a matter of statutory interpretation. The Commission has made no effort to examine each of these state statutes and determine how it should be interpreted. What the Commission s majority really means is not that a state legislature should clarify that its RFRA-style law was not intended to cover closely held corporations, but rather that it should amend its statute to exclude closely held corporations regardless of what was intended at the time of the statute s passage and regardless of Hobby Lobby. If that is what the majority really means, it needs to give an argument as to why this would be a better policy. As I have suggested above, it seems pointless and arbitrary to me to deny people of faith the ability to configure their businesses as closely-held corporations without losing their rights under RFRA-style laws. Second, the notion that states with RFRA-style laws must guarantee those statutes do not unduly burden protections against status-based discrimination is noticeably without legal citation. (Contrast that with Recommendation #1 which at least makes mandatory only what applicable law requires. ) What has caused the Commission s recommendations to be so off-kilter? Sound conclusions can only be built on sound facts, whether those facts are explicit or implicit. Unfortunately the official findings appended to this report leave much to be desired. In Finding #1, the Commission declares that [c]ivil rights protections ensuring nondiscrimination, as embodied in Constitution, laws, and policies are preeminent in American jurisprudence. (Italics added). On the other hand, in Finding #3, the protection of religious liberty is referred to as a longstanding and vital part of the American tradition, but is apparently not preeminent. My colleagues declare in Finding #4 that religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon civil rights. From that they conclude in Finding #5 that such exemptions must be weighed carefully and defined narrowly. I can imagine an argument that eventually ends with that conclusion, but by starting with an assertion that antidiscrimination laws are preeminent, the Commission s analysis essentially begins with its conclusion. Why should anyone accept it? The Commission said so. If anything, our Constitutional jurisprudence is grounded more in the opposite view. Religious liberty is sometimes referred to as our nation s First Freedom, because of its

131 Commissioners Rebuttals 121 preeminent position in the text of the First Amendment and its importance in the founding of our nation. 5 The Commission thus could just as easily indeed more easily have gone in the opposite direction of Finding #5: Because religious liberty is our First Freedom, it is preeminent, and laws, including non-discrimination laws, that purport to coerce individuals into acting or prohibiting them from acting in ways that would violate their conscience must be weighed carefully and defined narrowly. I wish the Commission had refrained from attaching these findings and recommendations. They were adopted without sufficient reflection and without sufficient appreciation for the complexities of the issues that are presented. 5 By contrast, our anti-discrimination laws are of more recent vintage. Some are grounded in the Constitution and some are not. The Fourteenth Amendment s requirement that states (not private individuals) accord individuals equal protection under the laws was made part of the Constitution in But the requirement is worded in a vague manner (alas, deliberately so), and it was not until the mid-twentieth century that the Supreme Court, in developing the doctrine of strict scrutiny, held that state laws discriminating on the basis of race would be subjected to a very exacting level of scrutiny while state laws discriminating on the basis of sex would only be subjected to an intermediate level of scrutiny. See, e.g., Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976); Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944). Laws that discriminate on most other bases are subjected to a lesser standard. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race and sex discrimination (among other things) even in private employment, is more recent than the strict scrutiny doctrine. Age discrimination in employment was not outlawed until 1967, and the Americans with Disabilities Act was not passed till To this day, there are no federal statutes prohibiting private individuals from declining to do business with another (as opposed to employ) on account of his or her sex or religion. If an owner of an interior decorating business doesn t want to design home interiors for women, because he feels they tend to interfere with his vision, federal law again does not interfere. If an individual arbitrarily decides that he doesn t want to patronize a dry cleaner, because it is owned by Evangelical Christians, federal law has nothing to say about it. The exception for discrimination on the basis of race in private contracts arose in a very curious way. In Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409 (1968), the Court misinterpreted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (re-promulgated as the Civil Rights Act of 1870 and codified as 42 U.S.C. 1982). See also Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160 (1976) (sticking to this misinterpretation as applied to 42 U.S.C. 1981). While the original statute was intended to confer upon African Americans and members of other minority races the same legal capacity to own and convey property, to contract and to devise and bequest property as whites have, it was erroneously interpreted to prohibit private individuals from engaging in race discrimination in those transactions. This is equivalent to construing the right to marry as a right that allows an individual to insist on marrying someone who doesn t want to marry him. See Gail Heriot & Alison Somin, Sleeping Giant?: Section Two of the Thirteenth Amendment, Hate Crimes Legislation and Academia s Favorite New Vehicle for the Expansion of Federal Power, 13 Engage 31 (October 2012); Gerhard Casper, Jones v. Mayer: Clio, Bemused and Confused Muse, 1968 Sup. Ct. Rev. 89, 100 (1968)( I am afraid the Court s approach in Jones v. Mayer represents a combination of creation by authoritative revelation and lawoffice history. ); Charles Fairman, 6 History of the Supreme Court of the United States: Reconstruction and Reunion, , 1207, 1258 (MacMillan 1971)( In Jones v. Mayer, the Court allowed itself to believe impossible things as though the dawning of enlightenment of 1968 could be ascribed to the Congress of a century agone. ). Congress has since re-promulgated and modified 42 U.S.C. 1981, thus acquiescing to Jones and Runyon. But there was never a time that Congress affirmatively decided to adopt a statute that would prohibit private individuals from discriminating on the basis of race in ordinary non-employment, non-public accommodation, nonhousing contexts. This was put in place by a judicial decision. Note that as a result of the Jones-Runyon pair of decisions, it is illegal for an individual, even in his capacity as a consumer, to decide to patronize (or not patronize) a business on account of the race of its owner. Thus, for example, an Asian American is violating 1981 if she prefers an Asian-American physician.

132 122 Peaceful Coexistence Report * * * * * Finally, allow me to share my thoughts about the Statements filed by my fellow Commissioners, which I had the opportunity to read only after I wrote the preceding. Unfortunately, as Commissioners, we are given only a 30-day period in which to file comments on our fellow Commissioners remarks 30 days during which many other major tasks also had to be accomplished. 6 For that reason, I am not able to cover everything I might like to cover. The Statement of Chairman Castro: Chairman Castro asserts: The phrases religious liberty and religious freedom will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance. In some ways, I envy anyone who can dismiss those who disagree with him as mere hypocrites. Those who do so envision a world that is peopled only by good guys and bad guys, and they are easy to tell apart. That is not the world with which I am familiar. Does Chairman Castro really believe that the Little Sisters of the Poor, whose case is currently before the Supreme Court, are just a bunch of hypocrites? 7 Does he believe that they are making up their concern over being compelled to finance their employees contraception? Does he think they really just want to save money? Chairman Castro inexplicably associates statutes like the RFRA with Christian supremacy. He seems to be unaware that Christians are a majority in this country. If they wanted laws that made exceptions only as dictated by their own faith, they often would have the political clout to get just that at least if they didn t explicitly label it as such. Instead, RFRA protects people of all faiths. Indeed, it is the adherents to less common religions--muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, and Bahá ís--that usually derive the most protection from RFRA and RFRA-style laws. Their political clout may be otherwise too weak to influence legislation. 8 In Religious Regulation and the Courts: The Judiciary s Changing Role in Protecting Minority Religions from Majoritarian Rule, John Wybraiec and Roger Finke found that religions 6 By contrast, the body of this report (less than 25 pages long) was approximately three years in the making and written by full-time staff members, while I am engaged only part-time. 7 Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell et al., See, e.g., Caruso v. Zenon, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS (D. Colo. 2005)(RLUIPA case ordering prison officials to provide halal meat diet to prisoner despite evidence that prisoner had ordered haram food from the prison canteen on numerous occasions and despite availability of vegetarian diet, which satisfied Muslim diet requirements); Toler v. Leopold, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS (E.D. Mo. 2008)(RLUIPA case ordering prison officials to provide kosher diet to Jewish convert).

133 Commissioners Rebuttals 123 in tension with society are more likely to be involved with the judiciary. For example, while Jewish, Muslim and Native American religions together made up less than 3 percent of church membership at the time of their study, those religions made up more than 18 percent of court cases concerning the free exercise of religion. Similarly, what Wybraniec and Finke called new religions or cults made up only 1 percent of church membership, but 16.5 percent of court cases concerning free exercise. 9 The second (and final) paragraph in Chairman Castro s short statement is as disturbing as his first. It accuses individuals who just want to be left alone of having exercised dominion and veto power over the rights of others: Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over others, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others. However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality. In our nation s past religion has been used to justify slavery and later, Jim Crow laws. We now see religious liberty arguments sneaking their way back into our political and constitutional discourse (just like the concept of states rights ) in an effort to undermine the rights of some Americans. This generation of Americans must stand up and speak out to ensure that religion never again be twisted to deny others the full promise of America. It is serious error to fail to make a distinction between the desire not to be coerced by the government and the desire to use governmental authority to coerce others. 10 RFRA-style laws are about the former; anti-discrimination laws, especially when enforced with great zeal even against the most trivial of deviation, are about the latter. By declining to listen, a private citizen has not vetoed the right of another to speak. By declining to associate, a private citizen has not exercised dominion over another s right of association John Wybraiec & Roger Finke, Religious Regulation and the Courts: The Judiciary s Changing Role in Protecting Minority Religions from Majoritarian Rule, in Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe 535, (James T. Richardson, ed. 2004). 10 Commissioner Narasaki s short Statement also fails to make this distinction, although, to her credit, her rhetoric is more measured than the Chairman s. 11 Often complexities come from cases in which the individuals who claim they just want to be left alone are in reality consuming or distributing finite public resources. If a Coast Guard captain refuses to rescue Roman Catholics that is clearly and unequivocally not simply a case of wishing to be left alone. He is endangering Roman Catholics, since the Coast Guard is unlikely to be able to deliver rescue services to them as readily. Speed is crucial in such cases. Other cases that in some sense involve public resources may cut in the other direction. Consider the example of a Christian evangelical society at a public university. Its members welcome all comers, but they wish to limit leadership roles in their society to Christians in violation of university rules that prohibit discrimination on the ground of race, color, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. Is the group simply asking to be left alone so

134 124 Peaceful Coexistence Report As for the rest of Chairman Castro s statement, 12 I believe it basically speaks for itself. I considered asking him to withdraw it. But then I decided it might be better for Christians, people as to preserve what is special about their group? Or are its members diverting precious school resources like the right to meet on school property to an exclusive group? Put differently, is its practice an effort to exert dominance over others? Or is it the school attempting to exert dominance over the Christian evangelical society (and indeed to drain it of its meaning)? I believe that on these assumed facts it likely is the latter assuming the university has not had to turn away other groups who wish to use the facilities for lack of a meeting room. But I understand and appreciate those who might argue otherwise. Judging from his tone, I am less certain that the Chairman understands and appreciates other sides of the debate. 12 Chairman Castro begins with a quotation that he attributes to John Adams: The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. The words are not Adams ; they are taken from the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797, which was written and signed on behalf of the United States by American poet and diplomat Joel Barlow. (For D.C. history buffs, Barlow may be best known as the owner of the Kalorama Estate, which has since become the Kalorama neighborhood in the Northwest part of the city.) Adams, with the advice and consent of the Senate, later accept[ed], ratif[ied] and confirm[ed] the treaty. The full quote from that section of the treaty is: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character or enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. The back story is this: For centuries prior to the treaty, North African Barbary states had preyed upon commercial ships coming near their shores. See Robert C. Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy (2003). Cargo was stolen, and crew members and passengers were routinely ransomed or enslaved. In general, the Barbary States (consisting of the nominally Ottoman, but de fact independent, cities of Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis and the independent sultanate of Morocco) declared themselves to be at war with all Christian states that had not agreed by treaty to pay tribute. Prior to the Revolution, American ships had been protected by virtue their relationship to the British Empire. During the Revolution, French ships had given them protection. But after that, at least two American ships were captured and their crews enslaved. Treaties were hurriedly negotiated (and sometimes re-negotiated) with Morocco and Algiers during George Washington s Presidency. Downplaying any connection with Christianity on the part of the government made sense. By 1797, when Adams became President, he was desperate to come to an arrangement with Tripoli and Tunis so as to ensure the safety of American commerce. In return for that safety (and well before the treaty was ratified), the Pasha of Tripoli received 40,000 Spanish dollars, 13 watches of gold, silver and pinsbach, three diamond rings, one sapphire ring and one ring with a watch in it, 140 piques of cloth, and 4 brocade caftans. In addition, the Pasha demanded the equivalent of an additional 12,000 Spanish dollars and naval stores consisting of five 8-inch braided rope hawsers, three 10-inch braided rope cables, 25 barrels of tar, 25 barrels of pitch, 10 barrels of rosin, 500 pine boards, 500 oak boards, 10 masts, 12 yard arms, 50 bolts of canvas, and four anchors. He received all of it either in kind or cash equivalent. Nevertheless, the efforts to avoid war through tribute were unsuccessful as such efforts often are. By 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli was demanding that the United States pay greater amounts as voluntary presents. He revoked the treaty. The result was the first of the conflicts known in American history as the Barbary Wars. It is unclear what the Chairman meant by quoting the Tripoli Treaty. (I note that he chose not to quote Adams more well-known statement: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ) Why does the language in the Tripoli Treaty help him prove his point? He chafes at the notion that our government was founded upon the Christian religion. But where does that get him in his argument? Presumably if government had been specifically designed to promote Christianity, the conflicts between the law and the Christian faith would be far less numerous and RFRA and RFRA-style laws would have been less necessary. The point of the treaty language wasn t that Christians should be forced to engage in conduct that betrays their faith. The point was that people of good will, no matter what their faith, can live in dignity as Americans or as

135 Commissioners Rebuttals 125 of faith generally and advocates of limited government to know and understand where they stand with him. 13 The Statement of Commissioners Achtenberg, Kladney, Yaki and the Chairman: Since I understand Commissioner Achtenberg was the primary author of this Statement, for simplicity s sake I will refer to it as hers. It is a more serious effort to discuss the issues presented in the report than the Chairman s. But in the end it too is deeply flawed. Commissioner Achtenberg states that the fight for religious exemptions is often characterized as a battle waged by Christians who purport to speak for all Christians. On the contrary, she writes, many Christian denominations and individuals support stronger antidiscrimination laws instead. I should say that in my entire 58 years of life I have never run across a single Christian who purported to speak for all Christians. Not once. This is not to say that no such person exists; it is simply a statement that given my experience they must be the rare exception and not the rule. On the other hand, I frequently run across individuals who believe that those who disagree with them on religious grounds purport to speak for all Christians. These individuals are mistaken. It makes me wonder whether with all the talk of the power of diversity today we are the most cocooned people ever. We read the news as it is presented to us by our friends on Facebook. We may eat in a different ethnic restaurant every week, and our friends may be of different races and from different parts of the country or world, but the opinions they hold are anything but diverse. It is not easy to find an LGBT rights activist who routinely engages with an Evangelical Christian social conservative or vice versa. We have become ideologically isolated. In any event, I am not certain what point Commissioner Achtenberg is trying to make when she states that some Christians agree with her. 14 Each individual must wrestle with his or her own conscience. The point is not whether most Americans or Christians agree. Each conscience is a dictatorship; it is not a democracy. neighbors or allies of the United States. Making that possible through RFRA, RFRA-style laws or other means is what this report is supposed to be all about. 13 The same should be said for the majority of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which adopted a short statement on April 15, 2016, entitled The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Condemns Recent State Laws Targeting the Civil Rights of the LGBT Community. That statement alleged without evidence that recent state laws that deal with religious liberty issues are merely using religion as a guise or an excuse to cover for more earthly motivations. Commissioner Kirsanow s and my response to that Statement is entitled Statement of Commissioners Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow and can found at: 14 Note that just as not all Christians agree on same-sex marriage issues, not all gays agree. Furthermore, some are Evangelical Christians themselves, some support RFRA-style laws despite not being religious themselves, and some wouldn t dream of forcing Evangelical Christians who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds to cater their wedding. I wish there were more overlap between such groups.

136 126 Peaceful Coexistence Report More broadly, I believe that Commissioner Achtenberg s statement suffers from the same defects as the Findings and Recommendations. It simply assumes that anti-discrimination laws are pre-eminent over religious liberty. Moreover, it occasionally slips into rhetoric similar to that of Chairman Castro: It assumes a lack of good faith among those who disagree with Commissioner Achtenberg and her colleagues. In doing so, it seeks to make difficult issues seem easy. But they are not. As to the first point, I have already pointed out that one could just as easily, indeed more easily, make the converse argument from the one Commissioner Achtenberg makes that religious liberty is preeminent over anti-discrimination laws. See supra at 7. Indeed, at least three arguments point in that direction. The first is historical. The right to the free exercise of religion was the reason many early settlers came to this county and was the First Freedom to be enshrined in the Bill of Rights. By contrast, most of the anti-discrimination laws referred to by my fellow Commissioners are comparatively recent. This is particularly so for bases for discrimination that Commissioner Achtenberg is concerned with in her Statement sexual orientation and gender identity. These are so new that at the federal level they do not exist at all; there are no federal statutes forbidding discrimination on those bases. There is only a recent 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court holding that the right to marry cannot be denied to same-sex couples. Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015). That is an astonishingly slim reed upon which to balance a claim of preeminence over religious liberty. The second argument against any notion of the pre-eminence of anti-discrimination laws is based on democratic values. By passing RFRA (and also by passing the RLUIPA), Congress has decided that religious conscience must be accommodated except under the unusual circumstance of a compelling purpose on the part of the government. Our democratically elected representatives put religious liberty first, the opposite of what Commissioner Achtenberg is trying to assert in her Statement. In the case of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, Congress has not passed a statute at all. Whatever protections exist come from the other branches of government and sometimes involve rather strained interpretations of the term sex discrimination. The third argument proceeds from liberty that this is a nation that seeks to constrain private conduct only when it is necessary. 15 While laws that require non-discrimination are all about requiring certain conduct even when the individuals who are governed by the law might prefer to act otherwise, laws that protect free exercise are about leaving people to conduct their 15 Patrick Henry famously said, Give me liberty or give me death, not Prohibit others from discriminating against me or give me death.

137 Commissioners Rebuttals 127 own lives as they see fit. The latter should be construed broadly, while the former, like all exercises of coercion, should be interpreted with appropriate restraint. Again, I am open to arguments that, as a matter of sound public policy, the standards set by RFRA, RLUIPA and other RFRA-style laws may be too high or should be more contextspecific. One context that I have given some thought to is prisons, 16 where I believe special incentives are at work. 17 These special incentives make it especially important to be mindful of 16 I elaborated on my views in that area in the Commission s 2008 enforcement report, Enforcing Religious Freedom in Prison. One way to illustrate the tricky kinds of problems that can arise there may be the Wotanist prison lawsuits. See, e.g., Lindell v. McCallum, 352 F.3d 1107 (7 th Cir. 2003)(vacating an entry of summary judgment against Wotanist inmate); Wood v. Maine Dep t of Corrections, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS (D. Me. Oct, 25, 2007)(recommendation of U.S. Magistrate to enter summary judgment against Wotanist inmate), summary judgment entered, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS (D. Me. May 22, 2008). Wotanists worship the ancient Norse gods, chief among them Wotan (or Odin). In fact, Wotanists tend to be white supremacists, whose taste in literature runs to racist screeds and violent rants. See Borzych v. Frank, 439 F.3d 388, 390 (7 th Cir. 2006)(noting that Wotanism is a religion that entail the worship of Norse gods and rejecting Wotanist inmate s claim that RLUIPA guarantees him books like The Temple of Wotan, which Wisconsin prison authorities had found to promote white-supremacist violence). See also Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism (2003). The Church of the New Song provides another interesting example. Originally founded as a game among prisoners, its adherents have filed more than [a] dozen lawsuits in federal court. Goff v. Graves, 362 F.3d 543, 546 (8 th Cir. 2004). One court described the Church of the New Song, which goes by the acronym CONS, as a masquerade designed to obtain First Amendment protection for acts which would otherwise be unlawful and/or reasonably disallowed. It reported that members of CONS had (apparently tongue-in-cheek) demanded means of steak and wine as part of their religious regimen. Theriault v. Silber, 453 F. Supp. 254, 260 (W.D. Tex. 1978). Prison officials, of course, are not required to take a prisoner s word for it when he claims adherence to a particular faith and argues that his free exercise of that faith is being substantially burdened by prison policies. See Coronel v. Paul, 316 F. Supp. 2d 868, 881 (D. Ariz. 2004)( The question under the RLUIPA s substantial burden prong, as this Court interprets it, is whether the state has prevented [the plaintiff] from engaging in conduct both important to him and motivated by sincere religious belief ). On the other hand, they may not play favorites in analyzing which religions it will accommodate and which it will not. The fact that a religion is non-traditional or just unattractive to others does not give the authorities carte blanche to ignore it. See U.S. Const. amend. I ( Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ). 17 Prisoners tend to have a lot of time on their hands and often don t hesitate to make demands. This can lead to grievance fatigue on the part of prison officials that in turn may result in a tendency to err on the side of accommodation. I note that the National Institute of Corrections reference manual on inmate religious beliefs and practices lists Odinism/Asatru along with Protestant Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and other traditional faiths as religions that prison authorities must deal with on a fairly regular basis. See National Institute of Corrections, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Technical Reference: Inmates Religious Beliefs and Practices (Mar. 27, 2003)(hereinafter Technical Reference ). Among the long list of religious items that such a congregation is permitted to have is Thor s Hammer. There is some evidence that not all versions of Odinism/Asatru have the same overtly racist theme that Wotanism tends to have. See Southern Poverty Law Center, Behind the Walls: An Expert Discusses the Role of Race-Based Gangs and Other Extremists in America s Prisons, Intelligence Report (Winter 2002), available at, Mark Pitcavage of the Anti- Defamation League stated in that interview: Non-racist versions of Asatru and Odinism are pretty much acceptable religions in the prisons. But again, if it is a racist version of these religions, then those materials may be prohibited. I should add, though, that a recent law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, puts the burden more squarely on prison officials to make their case that particular sects or practices pose threats to security.

138 128 Peaceful Coexistence Report the statutory and legal remedies that are available for aggrieved individuals, since remedies have a profound effect on how statutes are ultimately implemented. 18 But the one thing I feel sure of is that a pat assertion that anti-discrimination laws are preeminent over the First Amendment as One could argue, for example, that the appropriate standard to protect the religious liberty of prisoners should be different from that on the outside. For one thing, outside of prison, the faithful are ordinarily responsible for their own religious activities. They build their own churches and temples, pay their own clergy, and celebrate the sacraments without direct government assistance. All they ordinarily need is to be left alone. In prison, the situation is different. Prisoners need more than just to be left alone to follow their faith; they need the direct and active cooperation of prison officials. If prisoners are to have chaplains, kosher meals, or even Christmas trees, prison officials must provide for them (and for any extra security these activities may require). That creates a substantial incentive for prisoners to request things that they would not have provided for themselves on the outside. It also creates an incentive for prison officials to resist even the most reasonable request for religious accommodation in order to protect already strained budgets. Congress has attempted to counteract the latter (but not the former) incentive by imposing a strict standard upon prison officials. They may not place a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a prisoner unless the imposition of that burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. It is no excuse that the burden results from a rule of general applicability. The Act itself makes it clear that a prison may be require[d]...to incur expenses in its own operation to avoid imposing a substantial burden on religious exercise. Religious activity is thus given priority over other uses of time and money. Prison officials must essentially err on the side of greater religious freedom in its rules and regulations. Courts have ordered prison officials to incur expenses. For example, in Jackson v. Department of Corrections, the Court ordered the Massachusetts Department of Correction to employ an additional Imam to conduct weekly jum ah services for Muslim prisoners Mass. Super. LEXIS (Aug. 25, 2006). See also Gerhardt v. Lazaroff, 221 F. Supp. 2d 827, 842 (S.D. Ohio 2001) rev d on other grounds sub nom. Cutter v. Wilkinson, 349 F.3d 257 (6 th Cir. 2003) rev d 544 U.S. 709 (2005)( The language of RLUIPA, fairly read, strongly evinces Congress intent to require the States to fund new, substantial rights. )(internal quotation marks omitted). Other courts have commanded prison officials to furnish special diets for prisoners despite the added costs of doing so. See supra n. 8. Moreover, prisons now routinely furnish a wide assortment of special religious items to support worship as well as special security to support a wide variety of religious observances for a wide number of faith traditions ranging from Buddhist to Presbyterian, Rastafarian to Wiccan. Court orders are not required. See Technical Reference. Not every effort to require prisons to incur expenses to assist in religious free exercise are successful though every such effort does impose its own costs on prison budgets. See Smith v. Kylar, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS (3d Cir. Oct. 9, 2008)(affirming trial court s refusal to order prison to provide Rastafarian chaplain where too few inmates were Rastafarian). Efforts to require prisons to construct a sweat lodge for practitioners of traditional Native American religions appear to have often resulted in failure, see, e.g., Fowler v. Crawford, 534 F.3d 931 (8 th Cir. 2008), but some prisons that had previously declined to provide a sweat lodge have later changed their policy. See Pounders v. Kempker, 79 Fed. Appx. 941, 943 n.2 (8 th Cir. 2003). 18 I believe that RFRA and RLUIPA would have to be substantially overhauled if ever the Prison Litigation Reform Act ( PRLA ), 42 U.S.C. 1997(e), were repealed (or just repealed as it affects RFRA or RLUIPA). It is entirely possible that part of the reason that frivolous and vexatious litigation under RFRA and RLUIPA has not reached greater levels is PRLA, which was in part passed in response to the perception that federal courts had become overwhelmed with frivolous and vexatious litigation. For that reason, in its 2008 enforcement report, Enforcing Religious Freedom in Prisons, the Commission made the following recommendation: We see no reason to provide religious liberty claims with a special exemption from [PLRA s] provisions relating to exhaustion, the limitation on monetary awards absent a physical injury and attorneys fees Report Recommendation 4 at 103. For my discussion of the reasons for that recommendation and conclusion, see Statement of Gail Heriot, Enforcing Religious Freedom in Prisons (2008).

139 Commissioners Rebuttals 129 well as RFRA and RFRA-style laws is not an argument. It is merely triumphalism in the immediate wake of Obergefell. Commissioner Achtenberg s Statement then goes on to discuss pending state and federal legislation, much of which is really outside the scope of this report. But since she describes it in such emotionally-charged terms, I feel obligated to comment where I can. While I regard some of these bills as good policy, some as in need of tinkering and others as likely misguided, I view Commissioner Achtenberg s general description as overly dramatic. Although I have not been able to review them all, from what I have seen so far, it seems unfair to characterize these bills as a backlash against the LGBT community Note that from the standpoint of those who support traditional marriage, the backlash has been against them, not against the LGBT community, and it started a few years ago, not just last summer. They see the various state legislative bills as an effort to stop that backlash, and it is easy to see why they would see it that way. For them, it began in earnest with the harassment and reprisals experienced by supporters of California s Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to overrule the California Supreme Court s decision in favor of samesex marriage. See, e.g., Hollingsworth v. Perry, 558 U.S. 183, 195 (2010)(per curiam)(stating that past harassment substantiated witness concerns about testifying at a televised trial and noting 71 news articles detailing incidents of harassment related to people who supported Proposition 8 ); Doe v. Reed, 561 U.S. 186, 205 (2010)(Alito, J., concurring)(noting widespread harassment and intimidation suffered by supporters of California s Proposition 8); Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310, (2010) (Thomas, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)(detailing intimidation tactics used by Proposition 8 opponents against its supporters). Harassment tactics included acts of vandalism to the homes, cars, and other property of Proposition 8 supporters. Thomas M. Messner, The Price of Prop 8 at 3-4 & nn. 8-12, 15, (2009). A number of Mormon houses of worship were vandalized. Jennifer Garza, Feds Investigate Vandalism at Mormon Sites, Sacramento Bee (Nov. 14, 2008). A number of donors to Proposition 8 allegedly has their employees harassed, and received hundreds of threatening s and phone calls. Declaration of Frank Schubert in Support of Defendant- Intervenors Motion for a Protective Order at 6, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 704 F. Supp. 2d 921 (N.D. Cal. 2010). Other supporters of Proposition 8 in this case supporters distributing materials and displaying pro-8 decals were reportedly victims of physical assaults such as being spat upon and having hot coffee thrown on them by passengers in passing automobiles. Declaration of Ronald Prentice in Support of Defendant-Intervenors Motion for a Protective Order at 4, id. Some Proposition 8 supporters were reportedly physically attacked, including one with Yes on 8 campaign signs, who needed stitches after being punched in the face by someone who seized the signs and yelled, What do you have against gays? Attack Outside of Catholic Church Part of Wave of Intimidation, Says Yes on 8, Catholic News Agency (Oct. 15, 2008). Others received death threats. Brad Stone, Prop 8 Donor Web Site Shows Disclosure Law Is 2- Edged Sword, N.Y. Times (Feb. 8, 2009). See also Editorial, Prop 8 - Boycott or Blacklist?, L.A. Times (Dec. 10, 2008)(concluding that postelection boycott efforts: by defenders of same- sex marriage have turned into a vengeful campaign against individuals who donated in support of Proposition 8, usually in the form of pressure on their employers ). There are many more examples. See Brief of Amici Curiae ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8, Dennis Hollingsworth, Martin Gutierrez, and Mark Jansson in Support of All Respondents, Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015). By contrast, the period immediately after Obergefell was relatively quiet, perhaps because supporters of same-sex marriage had won. The major exception was that calls to strip churches that support traditional marriage of their tax exemption began to surface. See, e.g., Harry Bruinius, Same-Sex Marriage: Will Conservative Religious Colleges Lose Tax Exempt Status?, Christian Science Monitor (July )( I don t think that a number of these religious schools can reasonably hope to adhere to principles that are clearly in violation of public policy, a la Bob Jones, say Michael Olivas, law professor and director of the Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance at the University of Houston ); Felix Salmon, Does Your Church Ban Gay Marriage?: Then It Should Start Paying Taxes, Fusion

140 130 Peaceful Coexistence Report Commissioner Achtenberg states, Threats to civil liberties, cloaked as religious freedom protection bills, are emerging in dozens of states and localities across the nation. She elaborates by stating: In 2015, twenty-eight state legislatures were already considering more than eighty-five anti-lgbt bills by mid-march. By early 2016, approximately two dozen state legislatures were considering at least that many bills which aim to limit Americans access to marriage rights, other government services, commercial services, and other aspects of daily life based on religious exemption. The source of this allegation is apparently the web site of an advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign that specializes in LGBT issues. Commissioner Achtenberg supplies a URL to a page on that web site that makes the allegation that in 2015 twenty-eight state legislatures were already considering eighty-five anti-lgbt bills by mid-march. Two prominent red buttons are marked Donate and Give Now. Pending legislation on the Human Rights Campaign web site is described in apocalyptic terms, but seldom in sufficient detail to enable the reader to locate the bill without substantial effort. This is not the kind of source that should be cited in a report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. If there are 85 or more bills out there that raise concern, we should be looking at and citing the actual bills one by one, not the characterizations of those bills by an advocacy organization out to excite potential donors. Since Commissioner Achtenberg does not cite to any of the actual state bills she refers to, it seems unlikely that she has examined them directly. In the short amount of time I had, I tried to examine some of them. But I could not analyze all or nearly all of them given that time. I note again that many of them have nothing to do with the topic of this report. RFRA-style State Bills: As many as 25 of the bills are described by the Human Rights Campaign as RFRA-style laws. 20 As Commissioner Achtenberg admits herself elsewhere in her (June 29, 2015). If these calls are eventually successful (and that is a big if ), it will be a major backlash against faithful adherents to traditional marriage. My point in bringing this up is that civil rights leaders, leaders of the same-sex marriage movement, and leaders of the traditional marriage movement have a responsibility to avoid putting their arguments in exaggerated terms that are likely to inspire lawlessness. Once the cycle begins, it is not always easy to stop. 20 I have been able to locate some of them. See, e.g, Indiana Senate Enrolled Act No. 1 (available at freedom.html), which was later amended to make clear that it does not authorize a provider to refuse to offer or provide services, facilities, use of public accommodations, goods, employment, or housing to a member to any member of the general public ; Nevada S.B. 272 (available at Nevada A.B. 277 (available at (both bills appear to have died in committee); Montana House Bill No. 615, (available at ) (bill was defeated); Arkansas Senate Bill 975 (available at

141 Commissioners Rebuttals 131 Statement, RFRA was a bipartisan effort that passed the Senate I am certainly open to reasoned arguments that RFRA-style laws are less than perfect. But to suggest that they are thinly-veiled attempts to turn back the clock that will fall in constitutional challenge as overbroad and motivated by animus, as Commissioner Achtenberg does in her Statement, is deeply unfair R/Bills/SB975.pdf); Georgia Senate Bill No. 129 (available at )(failed to pass; Governor Nathan Deal later vetoed another religious liberty bill introduced later); Utah S.B. 296 (available at which was reportedly praised by the HRC for including language that sought to strike a balance between protecting the interests of LGBT persons and persons of faith (see Dennis Romboy, Utah, Indiana religious freedom laws not alike, Deseret News National, April 1, 2015 (available at indiana-religious-freedom-laws-not-alike.html); Colorado House Bill (available at =1171_01.pdf); South Dakota House Bill No (available at %201220)(defeated by the House); Oklahoma H.B (available at Michigan House Bill No (available at Michigan s House but stalled in its Senate); Mississippi Senate Bill No (available at Maine L.D (available at by Maine s Senate); West Virginia H.B (available at 2)(rejected by West Virginia s Senate.) Some of these are proposed constitutional amendments that, if passed, would need to be approved by a majority of the state s voters before amending the Constitution. See, e.g., Missouri Senate Joint Resolution No. 39, available at Texas H.J.R. No. 55, available at Some of these bills closely resemble the federal RFRA. A few have been commonly described as stronger. If Commissioner Achtenberg had problems with particular bills I would have been happy to look at them with her. Note that several of these bills appear to have died without getting much serious legislative consideration (which tends to be the fate of most bills in both state legislatures and Congress). 21 An example of a limited-scope, RFRA-style bill is Tennessee s H.B. 1840, which as of this writing had cleared the legislature and is awaiting the Governor s signature. H.B. 1840, which has been unfairly called Hate Bill 1840, would permit a counselor or therapist with sincerely held principles that conflict with a potential client s goals, outcomes or behaviors to decline to offer counseling/therapy to that potential client, provided that he or she refers the potential client to someone who will. It does not apply if the potential client is in imminent danger of harming himself or others. That anyone would object to this is curious. Few individuals would want a counselor or therapist who objects to their lifestyle. Should a Muslim be required to counsel a gay man who seeks to persuade another gay man to marry him? Should a Roman Catholic be required to help the owner of an abortion clinic work through the day-to-day stresses connected with his business? Should a Jainist be forced to provide therapy for the owner of a slaughterhouse as he discusses how he sends animal after animal to its death? I can imagine a law that actually forbids such a counselor or therapist from working with such a client on the ground of conflict of interest. Under certain circumstances, for example, attorneys may be forbidden from representing a client with whom they may have a conflict of interest. But I have a harder time imagining a legitimate reason for

142 132 Peaceful Coexistence Report How does Commissioner Achtenberg explain why Congressional Democrats massively supported RFRA, despite its being, in her view, not just a terrible law, but an actual threat[] to civil liberties? It turns out it is George W. Bush s fault or so her argument goes. The reader is told that during his administration, the Department of Justice s Office of Legal Counsel ( OLC ) issued an opinion that encouraged an overbroad interpretation of RFRA, causing RFRA to become highly politicized and a source of discriminatory overreach [that] must be curtailed. Achtenberg at 36. Her statement does not specify what was in the OLC opinion. We re supposed to take her word for it that it was overbroad and has caused RFRA to become overpoliticized. But by my reading, the OLC opinion she complains of should have been fairly routine for those who take the text of statutes seriously. See Office of the Legal Counsel, Memorandum Opinion for the General Counsel: Office of Justice Programs: Application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the Award of a Grant Pursuant to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, vol. 31, 1 (June 29, 2007). The issue concerned World Vision, an Evangelical Christian humanitarian organization founded by the Rev. Robert Pierce, an American Baptist minister, missionary and relief worker. Its web site describes its mission thusly: wanting to compel counselors and therapists like those covered by this bill to take on a client whose goals, outcomes or behaviors conflict with their sincerely held religious belief. In a statement adopted by the Commission on April 15, 2016, the majority of my colleagues alleged that this law is part of an alarming trend to limit the civil rights of a class of people using religious beliefs as the excuse. It seems just the opposite to me. This law decreases the likelihood that a gay individual in need of counseling or therapy will be saddled with a counselor or therapist who disapproves of the way he leads his life. Another example is the portion of Mississippi s H.B. 1523, which was signed into law by the Governor on April 5, 2016, that deals with same-sex marriage and sex reassignment surgery, treatment and related therapy. First, it seeks to ensure that those who have religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage are not forced to participate in same-sex weddings as wedding planners, photographers, cake designers, etc. This includes state employees with responsibilities for issuing marriage licenses or officiating at weddings (although the bill additionally requires all necessary steps be taken to ensure that the couple s wedding not be imperiled or delayed by such recusals). Similar dispensations (with appropriate limitations) were given to persons with religious and moral objections to participating in sex reassignment surgery, treatment and related therapy. The Act also reaffirms the First Amendment rights of such employees and also adoptive and foster parents to express their views on same-sex marriage, sex outside marriage and the immutability of biological sex. Note that the purpose of this legislation is not to deny same-sex couples the opportunity to celebrate their weddings (or transgenders access to sex reassignment surgery treatment or related therapy). Same-sex couples have many alternative sources for wedding services. The purpose is to avoid coercing unwilling individuals into participating in something they do not believe in. There are many in this nation with sincere religious and moral objections to samesex marriage. Denying that, as our colleagues do, is simply a way to pretend the issues that face us as a nation are easy. Toleration is all about leaving people alone to live their lives as they see fit; it is not about forcing people to take part in other people s lives. Whatever it is that my Commission colleagues are standing up for, it is not toleration.

143 Commissioners Rebuttals 133 World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God. We pursue this mission through integrated, holistic commitment to: * Transformational development that is community-based and sustainable, focused especially on the needs of children. Emergency relief that assists people afflicted by conflict or disaster. * Promotion of justice that seeks to change unjust structures affecting the poor among whom we work. * Partnerships with churches to contribute to spiritual and social transformation. * Public awareness that leads to informed understanding, giving, involvement, and prayer. * Witness to Jesus Christ by life, deed, word, and sign that encourages people to respond to the Gospel. In other words, World Vision s team does the kind of work that most of the rest of us only dream of doing. And they do it for the greater glory of their Creator. I distinctly remember during the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s, a newspaper reported that there were only two relief organizations getting through to the hinterland, where food and supplies were needed most World Vision and Catholic Relief Services. Why? Unlike their secular counterparts, they had a ground game networks of Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics respectively who knew the terrain and were willing to risk their lives to perform what they saw as their duty as Christians. Their trucks rolled, while the materials brought in by other famine relief organizations languished in airports, railway depots, and cities. 22 My respect for both organizations is boundless. I wept off and on for days thinking of their heroism Despite my very vivid recollection of this article, which I suspect ran in the Washington Times, I have been unable to find it. But a few other articles I have found collectively convey the substance of the story. See Clifford May, U.S. Will Give Development Aid to Ethiopia, N.Y. Times, May 9, 1985, available at ethiopia.html; Rhonda Givens, Pennies, Dimes, Dollars: World Vision Takes in Millions to Aid the Starving, L.A. Times, Feb. 24, 1985, available at 23 It brought to mind the lyrics of John Bunyan s well-known hymn, He Who Would Valiant Be: No foes shall stay their might,

144 134 Peaceful Coexistence Report But guess what? World Vision hires only practicing Christians who believe in its statement of faith. 24 World Vision has even dismissed employees who turned out to be nonbelievers. 25 Put differently, its leaders discriminate on the basis of religion. They believe it is their Christian mission that unites them and makes them strong. No one with the gift of wisdom would doubt them on this. Among World Vision s many other humanitarian projects is its Vision Youth Program, which seeks to transform the lives of high-risk young people in eight locations across the country by facilitating one-on-one mentoring, educational enhancement, and life-skills training for at-risk children and youth. OLC Op. at 2, quoting World Vision Grant Application. It was this project that gave rise to the OLC s need to interpret RFRA. World Vision sought and received a government grant pursuant to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which is administered by the Department of Justice s Office of Justice Programs, for its Vision Youth Program. Grants made pursuant to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act are subject to 42 U.S.C. 3789d(c), the nondiscrimination provision of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( the Safe Street Act ), Pub. L. No , 82 Stat That provision of the law states, No person shall on the ground of [among other things] religion be subjected to discrimination under or denied employment in connection with any programs or activity funded in whole or in part with funds made available under this chapter. Unlike Title VII, the Safe Streets Act has no explicit section exempting religious organizations from its prohibition on religious discrimination. But RFRA applies. The OLC agreed that applying the anti-discrimination prohibition would impose a substantial burden on World Vision s religious exercise and that the burden was not the least restrictive means of furthering [a] compelling governmental interest. 42 U.S.C. 2000bb-1(b). Consequently, World Vision did not have to give up its identity in order to qualify for a federal grant. 26 Who would have argued that World Vision s religious mission was not substantially burdened by requiring it to hire atheists? I have a hard time imagining. Those who will brook no challenge to the plenary power of the State? Those who are out to weaken all institutions that function as counterweights to the centralized power of the State? 27 Or maybe those driven to Though they with giants fight. John Bunyan, He Who Would Valiant Be, English Hymnal (1906)(mutatis mutandis). 24 Spencer v. World Vision, Inc., 633 F.3d 723, 736 (9 th Cir. 2010). 25 Id. at 725 (9 th Cir. 2010) ( In 2006, World Vision discovered that the Employees denied the deity of Jesus Christ. As this was incompatible with World Vision s doctrinal beliefs the Employees were terminated. ). 26 Note Smith involved a government subsidy too. 27 At an earlier point in my life, I would have maintained that almost no American was interested in weakening the

145 Commissioners Rebuttals 135 distraction by the notion that somewhere there is a party that they are not invited to? I cannot say. I believe that OLC got it right with its conclusion that it would substantially burden an Evangelical Christian humanitarian relief organization to be required to hire non-believers. 28 Commissioner Achtenberg s suggestion that it is only because of OLC s World Vision opinion that RFRA has become a problem is thus off-base. It is a handy explanation for why RFRA was so uncontroversial among Democrats and Republicans alike in 1993, but is now anathema to right-thinking Progressives. But it simply doesn t fit the facts. Whether one was initially a fan of RFRA or not, all this was implicit in the standard in The real story is likely driven by political convenience. RFRA was fine when it protected Native Americans who had been fired from their jobs at a private drug rehabilitation clinic for using peyote in the course of a Native American religious ceremony. For years, the ACLU and other left-leaning organizations were happy to represent plaintiffs in lawsuits brought pursuant to RFRA and RFRA-style state laws. But the case of the Indiana bakers who, motivated by their understanding of Biblical teachings, declined to create a cake to celebrate the commitment ceremony of a gay couple, doesn t appeal to them. 29 The bakers actions were considered by them to be intolerant and intolerable. 30 numerous institutions that we collectively call civil society, each of which in its own way contributes to the health of the nation as a whole precisely because it is not part of the government and therefore does not make use of coercive power. Now I am not surprised when I learn that a popular Presidential candidate opposes private charity: I don t believe in charities, said Mayor [Bernard] Sanders, bringing a shocked silence to a packed hotel banquet room. The Mayor, who is a Socialist, when on to question the fundamental concepts on which charities are based and contented that government, rather than charity organizations, should take over responsibility for social programs. Albin Krebs & Robert McG. Thomas, Notes on People: Some Disunity Along the United Way, N.Y. Times (Sept. 19, 1981). 28 The answer to the question, Is the Pope Catholic? used to be considered obvious. Perhaps if those who those who believe the OLC Opinion has caused RFRA to become highly politicized and a source of discriminatory overreach [that] must be curtailed get their way, it will not be so obvious. The Roman Catholic Church will be just one more civil institution that needs to be reduced to utter conformity with the will of the State. 29 The owners of 111 Cakery were husband and wife and members of a Baptist church. They had a policy of not creating a custom cake with a message related to alcohol, drugs or violence. When asked to create a custom cake to celebrate a same-sex commitment ceremony, they declined, saying they would be happy to help the couple with anything else. Their business was located in a neighborhood with many same-sex couples, and the owners did not decline to serve same-sex couples seeking to purchase a cake for other reasons. In explaining their decision, they wrote: Why are we doing what we do? We want to show the love of Christ. We want to be right with our God, but we also want to show kindness and respect to other people. See Owners Who Refused Cake for Gay Couple Close Shop, Christianity Today (March 3, 2015); Will Higgins, Owners Who Refused Cake for Gay Couple Close Shop, USA Today (Feb. 27, 2015); Yvonne Man, Same-Sex Couple Denied Cake by Bakery; Owners Speak Out, Fox59.com (March 14, 2014).

146 136 Peaceful Coexistence Report When it comes to discrimination, the real question is evidently whose ox is being gored. That raises the question of what my colleagues would have thought if the roles had been somehow reversed: What if a same-sex couple owning a videography business had been asked to be the videographers for a meeting of the Christian Association to Limit Marriage to Opposite-Sex Couples? Or a Muslim baker had been asked to design a cake making fun of Mohammad? Or a woman baker had been asked to bake a sexually-explicit cake for a gathering of Hustler Magazine subscribers? Under those circumstances, not only would many left-of-center groups continue to support RFRA-style laws, they would argue that they don t go far enough (because the bakers objections in my hypotheticals are not all faith-based). The outrage machine that has been cranked up since Obergefell against RFRA-style laws in states like Indiana and Georgia has been astonishing given the near-unanimity of Congress at the time of RFRA s initial passage. These laws are not, as Commissioner Achtenberg puts it, of [t]hreats to civil liberties, cloaked as religious freedom. Nor are they an effort to eviscerate nondiscrimination protections. Achtenberg at 33, 152. It s a shame the rhetoric has gotten so out of hand. Nelson Mandela once said, When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. 31 RFRAs and RFRA-style laws are intended to avoid such outcomes. I don t think it helps for my colleagues to insist that this is not really an issue of religious freedom. It is always tempting to view one s ideological adversaries as simply scoundrels or hypocrites. Those with political clout can feel good about just mowing those who disagree with them down. It s so much easier than beginning the slow and meticulous process of engagement. But the right thing to do is often the more difficult thing to do. And this case is no In Oregon, a similar story unfolded with a slight twist. Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, had declined to design and bake a cake for the wedding of Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, a lesbian couple. Oregon had (and continues to have) an applicable law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and the couple who sought the cake decided to file a complaint with the Oregon Labor Commission and were eventually awarded $135,000 in damages. George Rede, Sweet Cakes Final Order: Gresham Bakery Must Pay $135,00 for Denying Service to Same-Sex Couple, Oregonlive.com (July 2, 2015). Again in this case, the Kleins had not declined to sell baked goods to Ms. Cryer and Ms. Bowman, but, citing their religion, they did not wish to put their creative talents to work in a way that, in their view, appeared to specifically condone same-sex marriage. 30 The argument is made that the RFRA claim in the Indiana bakery case should fail, because the State has a compelling governmental interest in ensuring that no one is ever discriminated against on account of race, color, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. Tell that to Barbara Grutter. In Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), the Court held that the University of Michigan may discriminate against Asians and whites in order to obtain the racial mix of students the University prefers. Why didn t the federal government have a compelling governmental interest to ensure that the ban on race discrimination in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 be enforced there? Grutter involved discrimination by a state university making it a much stronger case for race-neutrality than the Indiana bakery case. 31 E.g., Philip Gourevitz, Nelson Mandela, The New Yorker (Dec. 16, 2013)(quoting Mandela).

147 Commissioners Rebuttals 137 exception: Try to persuade them you are right, and be open to the possibility that sometimes they are right and might persuade you instead. Reasonable people may disagree both on how extensive anti-discrimination laws should be and how far protections of religious liberty should go. They may draw distinctions between cases that involve race, cases that involve sex and cases that involve sexual orientation. They may draw distinctions between public and private conduct or between the conduct of monopoly services and services, like the Indiana bakery case (and the similar case in Oregon) where alternatives exist for those seeking services. But when opponents of these laws shriek that the other side s true intent is only cloaked as religious freedom and that the other side s real project is to eviscerate anti-discrimination laws, they are being unfair and unreasonable. State Bills Concerning Adoption Agencies: Some of the bills referred to by the Human Rights Campaign involve adoption services. According to the Human Rights Campaign, these bills attack adoption and place [p]rospective parents at risk of rejection for reasons completely unrelated to their ability to parent a child. In fact, they don t affect anyone s right to adopt (assuming that anyone has the right to adopt a child). They simply affect whether certain faith-based adoption agencies can exist as an option. I have located the three bills on this topic collectively signed into Michigan law on June 11, Together they codified Michigan s already-existing practice of allowing faith-based adoption agencies to decline to provide adoption services when to do so would conflict with that faith. The main operative clause states: (2) To the fullest extent permitted by state and federal law, a child placing agency shall not be required to provide any services if those services conflict with, or provide any services under circumstances that conflict with, the child placing agency's sincerely held religious beliefs contained in a written policy, statement of faith, or other document adhered to by the child placing agency. Pub. L. 53 (2015), codified at Mich. Comp. Laws e. The new Michigan law then went on to improve matters from the standpoint of anyone an agency declines to serve by requiring that agency to provide referrals. (4) If a child placing agency declines to provide any services under subsection (2), the child placing agency shall provide in writing information advising the applicant of the department's website, the Michigan adoption resource exchange or 32 Mississippi s H.B. 1523, signed into law by the Governor on April 5, 2016 is another example. Among other things, it deals with the adoption issue, available at VxoYjE1MjNpbi5wZGY=/hb1523in.pdf.

148 138 Peaceful Coexistence Report similar subsequently utilized websites, and a list of adoption or foster care service providers with contact information and shall do at least 1 of the following: a) Promptly refer the applicant to another child placing agency that is willing and able to provide the declined services. b) Promptly refer the applicant to the webpage on the department's website that identifies other licensed child placement agencies. Pub. L. 53 (2015), codified at Mich. Comp. Laws e. There is a tragic story behind laws like Michigan s. A decade ago, Catholic Charities of Boston was forced to close down its adoption service as a result of the lack of such a law in Massachusetts. See Jeff Jacoby, Adoption Flap a Tragedy for Children, Boston Globe (March 5, 2006); Jeff Jacoby, Kids Take Backseat to Gay Agenda, Boston Globe (March 15, 2006). Catholic Charities was well-known in New England for its success in placing hard-toplace children those with physical handicaps or behavioral problems in loving homes. But in 2003, a Vatican office headed by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) prohibited the practice of allowing gay couples to adopt children, calling it "gravely immoral," a form of "violence" that places children "in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development." This conflicted with Massachusetts law, which prohibited organizations that work under contract with the state, presumably including adoption agencies, from discriminating in any way on the basis of sexual orientation. Catholic Charities sought a statutory dispensation for faith-based adoption services. The Massachusetts legislature, having been heavily lobbied by advocacy groups, refused to grant such a dispensation. As Jacoby put it: Id. The church's request for a conscience clause should have been unobjectionable, at least to anyone whose priority is rescuing kids from foster care. Those who spurned that request out of hand must believe that adoption is designed primarily for the benefit of adults, not children. The end of Catholic Charities' involvement in adoption may suit the Human Rights Campaign. But it can only hurt the interests of the damaged and vulnerable children for whom Catholic Charities has long been a source of hope. Note that the advocacy group cited by Jacoby the Human Rights Campaign is the same group whose research was relied upon by Commission Achtenberg when she characterized these bills as threats to civil liberties, cloaked as religious freedom protection bills. The Human Rights Campaign thought Catholic Charities, operating under rules from the Vatican it could do nothing about, was a threat to civil liberties. It didn t matter that anyone who couldn t adopt

149 Commissioners Rebuttals 139 through Catholic Charities could easily go to one of the other adoption agencies. More tellingly, it didn t matter that Catholic Charities had greater successes placing children with disabilities and behavioral problems than other agencies. Miscellaneous State Bills that Do Not Involve Issues of Religious Liberty: The rest of the bills alluded to by Commissioner Achtenberg have nothing to do with the subject of this report, so I will address them only briefly. 33 Many of them affect only transgender 34 issues rather than LGBT issues more generally The most talked-about bill in the press may be North Carolina s H.B. 2, which was signed into law by the Governor on March 23. See Tal Kopan and Eugene Scott, North Carolina Governor Signs Controversial Transgender Bill, CNN.com (Mar. 24, 2016), available at One unusual aspect of the North Carolina bill that has drawn criticism is the fact that it appears to take away from local governments the power to promulgate ordinances banning discrimination in employment as well as a few other areas. To understand this aspect of the bill, one must first understand something about North Carolina s system of local government and its Constitution, which was adopted in 1971, much too early to be a deliberate effort to thwart the policy objectives of LGBT advocacy organizations. North Carolina is one of the few non-home rule states. Frayda S. Bluestein, Do North Carolina Local Governments Need Home Rule?, 84 N.C. L. Rev. 1983, 2003 (2006). Among other things, the North Carolina Constitution does not permit the state or local governments to enact ordinances governing labor and employment in a local area. See N.C. Const. art. II, 24; Williams v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, 357 N.C. 170, 581 S.E. 2d 415 (2003). This was an effort by creating a single set of laws governing employment to create a business climate that would produce more jobs for North Carolinians. In the past, some local governments made efforts to circumvent the policy by imposing labor and employment requirements on their public contractors. That practice was then prohibited by the North Carolina legislature, which was also keen to prevent North Carolina from becoming a patchwork of different ordinances. H.R. 2 was triggered by a City of Charlotte ordinance that was seen as another effort by a local government to create that patchwork. Adding to North Carolina s discomfort was the fact that the ordinance passed at the same time that city governments in other parts of the country were raising the minimum wage to what many regard as unsustainable levels. The legislature feared that this could result in substantial job loss to North Carolinians. Interestingly, the Charlotte City Council had not attempted to prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in employment, since it was fairly clear it had no such power. Nor did it attempt to circumvent that policy by imposing labor and employment requirements on their public contractors, since it was fairly clear it had been statutorily prohibited from that too. Instead, it came in at a slightly different angle by attempting to impose requirements that its contractors refrain from discriminating on the basis of marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in their other business dealings, including their dealings with their suppliers and other customers (regardless of whether those contractors were located in Charlotte or elsewhere). Note the problem here: If cities have the authority to place requirements on contractors in this way, contractors located in Raleigh or in Chicago could be required to follow Charlotte law. What happens if the local law in Raleigh or in Chicago requires something entirely different? What, for example, if another city requires family discounts while Charlotte law apparently forbids them? The patchwork that North Carolina wanted to avoid was re-asserting itself. Among other things, therefore, H.B. 2 reasserted that the state legislature and not localities controlled labor and employment law, including wage and hour law and employment discrimination law. This was not a change in the law, except to clarify what was already obvious that its previous law against sex discrimination concerned biologically defined sex.

150 140 Peaceful Coexistence Report Athletic Teams: Some of these bills will, if passed, define who is eligible for girls teams at elementary and secondary schools and who is not. In a better world, I might have preferred to leave this issue to local coaches, teachers, principals and school boards. But given the aggressive stance taken on transgender issues by the U.S. Department of Education s Office for Civil Rights ( OCR ), I am not surprised that state legislatures have been tempted to intervene. OCR has Might North Carolina prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression or some subset of those bases at some point in the future? It is always possible. Shortly after H.B. 2 s passage, the Governor, in what might have been intended as a gesture of good will given the panic in the LGBT community, issued an executive order banning sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in state government employment. But first and foremost, H.B. 2 was about hurriedly reasserting the state government s authority and its policy against legal patchworks. In addition to re-asserting that local governments cannot regulate labor and employment either directly or through public contracts, the legislature pushed back on local governments efforts to regulate contractors other business dealings and its efforts to regulate the business dealings of businesses open to the public. Note that the latter move actually expanded the reach of antidiscrimination law. Prior to that, there had been no North Carolina law requiring businesses open to the public to serve all comers, regardless of race, religion, color, national origin or biological sex. Now there is. (Federal law Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination by public accommodations on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. But a public accommodation is defined narrowly to include such things as hotels, restaurants and places of public entertainment. The North Carolina law s coverage is now broader and includes ordinary retail establishments.) For a discussion of other aspects of the North Carolina bill, see infra at n.41; Statement of Commissioners Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow, available at 34 Confused by the term transgender? Lots of people are. These days it is used as an umbrella term. Some use the circular definition that anyone who considers himself or herself to be transgender is transgender. A more helpful definition would be that anyone who was born into one sex, but who psychologically identifies with the other sex (or some third alternative or combination of alternatives) is transgender. A transgender is not necessarily a transsexual in the sense that not all transgenders have had surgical alteration of their genitalia. Indeed, few have undergone such procedures. Not all (or even most) transgenders have had any kind of hormonal treatment. Some go out of their way at all times to dress and speak in a manner more traditional for the sex they identify with than with the sex they were born into. Others do so only on occasion or only partially. Not all transgenders are gay (in the sense of attracted to persons of the same sex they were anatomically born into). Indeed, according to the famed Kinsey Report, only a rather small percentage of transvestites (i.e. individuals who prefer to dress as the opposite sex at least sometimes) are also homosexual. Alfred Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Female 680 (1953), cited in Trapped in Sing Sing at 511. According to a study conducted by UCLA s Williams Institute and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, of the over 6000 respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 21% identify as Gay/Lesbian/Same-Gender Attraction, 23% as Bisexual, 20% as Queer, 21% as Heterosexual, 4% as Asexual, and 11% as Other. See Ann P. Haas, Philip L. Rodgers & Jody L. Herman, Suicide Attempts Among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults: Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey 5 (January 2014). 35 See Florida House Bill 585, available at BillNumber=0583&Session=2015. Contrary to the Human Rights Campaign s web site, it does not require restroom surveillance. Some bills like Massachusetts House Bill 1320, available at cover both restrooms and athletic programs. Contrary to the Human Rights Campaign s web site, the Massachusetts bill does not criminalize the use of a women s rest room by an anatomical male, but self-identified female. Rather, it simply states that use of such facilities is to be determined by one s anatomical sex rather than one s gender identity. See infra at n. 43.

151 Commissioners Rebuttals 141 strong-armed at least one school into allowing an anatomically intact male student who psychologically identifies as female to change in the girls locker room. 36 S.F (Minnesota), for example, states in pertinent part: Subd. 2. Female teams; male participation. When an elementary or secondary school establishes a team for students of the female sex, students of the male sex may not try out for or participate on that team. For purposes of this section, "sex" means the physical condition of being male or female, which is genetically determined by a person's chromosomes and is identified at birth by a person's anatomy. H.B (South Dakota) is similar, but also contains significant differences: Section 1. The board of directors of the South Dakota High School Activities Association may not adopt any transgender policy. The sole determinant of a student's sexual identity is the sexual identity noted on the student's certificate of birth. If no sexual identity is noted on the student's certificate of birth, the sole determinant is the sexual identity noted on the South Dakota High School Activities Association physical exam form that is completed by a health care professional at the student's physical examination. Any transgender policy adopted by the board of directors prior to this Act is hereby declared void. Note one interesting difference between the bills. The Minnesota bill covers cases in which an elementary or secondary school establishes a team for students of the female sex. This might be interpreted to leave schools the authority to establish a team explicitly for females and male-to-female transgenders or indeed transgenders of any description. I have no idea if that was intended. The South Dakota bill leaves less wiggle room. South Dakota appears to require the South Dakota High School Activities Association to define teams by sexual identity as noted on the student's certificate of birth rather than some alternative way. In the excruciatingly rare circumstance under which an individual s sex is not noted on his or her birth certificate, the bill appears to contemplate that anatomy will control. Neither of these can be characterized as [t]hreats to civil liberties, cloaked as religious freedom protections bills. They have nothing to do with religious freedom. They are simply an honest effort to deal with the sex/gender issue that has emerged, much to the surprise of many, in the last few years. 36 See, e.g., Letter of Peter Kirsanow and Gail Heriot to the Honorable Trent Franks, December 15, 2015 (discussing a resolution agreement with an Illinois school district that required a male-to-female transgender student to be permitted to change in the girls locker room.)

152 142 Peaceful Coexistence Report These days we are repeatedly told that an individual s gender identity may be different from his or her sex. While that individual may have been born with the anatomy of one sex, he or she may identify psychologically with the opposite sex or even with some non-binary alternative. But, if so, that just raises the question of which sports team such a person should be assigned to. It doesn t answer that question. So allow me to pose it again: Should a student with a intact boy s physical body (sex) but who psychologically feels like a girl (gender identity) be assigned to a sports team based on sex or on gender identity? The supporters of S.F and H.B apparently believe that physical body (sex) should be determinative of athletic team eligibility. There is a lot to be said for that approach. We have traditionally separated boys from girls in high school athletics for two reasons. First, we do it to ensure that girls, whose average size, strength and speed tends to be a cut below the average boy s, will nevertheless have opportunities for athletic competition. Second, in contact sports, we sometimes do it for sexual privacy. The best example of why transgendered individuals should play on teams with fellow members of their sex rather than members of the sex they psychologically identify with is the winner of the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. This is not just a pretty good athlete who could have made his varsity football team at his high school, this is the world s greatest athlete of Bruce Jenner may have felt inside that he was a woman, but his body was doing things that no woman s body has ever done. In 2015, Jenner became openly transgender, and now wishes to be known as Caitlyn. Fine. But Caitlyn is still 6 feet, two inches tall and still weighs nearly 200 pounds, with shoulders, arm length and other relevant measurements that are more typical of a man than of a woman. With the exception of modest surgery to reduce the appearance of an Adam s Apple and supplemental estrogen treatments, Caitlyn is an intact anatomical male. Caitlyn is also on record as having a sexual orientation more typical of males (i.e. a sexual attraction to women, not men). 37 Sexual privacy considerations 37 Did you notice that once I got to Caitlyn as opposed to Bruce I stopped using pronouns? Yes, Caitlyn prefers feminine pronouns and under other circumstances I might have been more inclined to indulge an individual s preference in these matters. The problem is that a remarkable number of people have started to actually believe that a man who dons women s clothes and undergoes hormone treatment is, in some significant sense, a woman. Still others notably the New York City Commission on Human Rights ( NYCCHR) believe it is appropriate to legally require employers, landlords and owners of public accommodations to use an individual s preferred name, pronoun, and title (e.g., Ms./Mrs.) regardless of the individual s sex assigned at birth, anatomy, gender, medical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on the individual s identification. As a result, the intentional or repeated refusal to do so can now result in fines as high as $250,000 in New York City. NYCCHR further states: Most individuals and many transgender people use female or male pronouns and titles. Some transgender and gender non-conforming people prefer to use pronouns other than he/him/his or she/her/hers, such as they/them/theirs or ze/hir. NYC Commission on Human Rights, Legal Enforcement Guidance on the Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Expression: Local Law No. 3 (2002); N.Y.C. Admin. Code 8-102(23) 4 (Dec. 21, 2015).

153 Commissioners Rebuttals 143 would therefore have cut in favor of assigning a young Caitlyn to the boys teams in high school on both grounds. 38 The notion that gender is not binary further complicates the issue. See Anne Fausto- Sterling, The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough, The Sciences 20 (March/April 1993); Darren Rosenblum, Trapped in Sing Sing: Transgendered Prisoners Caught in the Gender Binarism, 6 Mich. J. Gender & Law 499, 503 (2000) ( Although most people accept that there are two sexes, male and female, these categories actually contain a myriad of genders, formed genetically, biologically, and culturally ). If gender were determinative of sports team eligibility, schools would need to field a whole range of teams, rather than just a boys and a girls team. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey conducted by UCLA s Williams Institute, 31 percent of transgender respondents identified either strongly (10 percent) or somewhat (21 percent) with the identity Third Gender. 39 Since no school can float a different team for all the gender choices that seem to be in fashion these days, going with sex as determined at birth may well be the best and most practical rule. See, e.g., Sam Escobar, I m Not Male I m Not Female. Please Don t Ask Me About My Junk, Esquire (March 31, 2016); Ernie Grimm, My Gender is Bunny, San Diego Reader (March 25, 2009). I note that the number of high school and middle school transgenders who have received surgery in order to have their anatomy appear more like the sex they psychologically identify with is vanishingly small. 40 Voluntarily indulging an individual s eccentricities can be a good thing, whether those eccentricities are connected to the individual s sex or to some other characteristic. Indeed, such indulgences can add to life s charm. Cf. William Drury, Norton I, Emperor of the United States (1986). Mandating that an employer, landlord or business owner address an employee, tenant or customer as if he is something he is not, on pain of a $250,000 fine, is quite another thing. And the notion that an employer, landlord or owner of a public accommodation can be forced to use pronouns that are alien to the English language like ze/hir is abhorrent. Even during the French Revolution s Reign of Terror, when Robespierre s Committee on Public Safety banned traditional titles like Madame and Monsieur and required instead the use of Citoyen and Citoyenne (i.e. Citizen and Citizeness ) as titles, no one tried to force new-fangled pronouns on unwilling persons. Proper nouns weren t considered sacred: Robespierre and his compatriots changed the names of the months of the year, the days of the week and many other things. But they didn t just make up pronouns. I believe that I have an obligation to refrain from contributing to the confusion, especially given that this is a government report. 38 Buzz Bisinger, Caitlyn Jenner: The Full Story, Vanity Fair, June 25, 2015, available at 39 See Ann P. Haas, Philip L. Rodgers & Jody L. Herman, Suicide Attempts Among Transgender and Gender Non- Conforming Adults: Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey 6 (January 2014). 40 Note also that different individuals have different onsets of gender dysphoria, which complicates the issue yet again. In a recent study in Finland, the authors describe both childhood-and adolescent-onset gender dysphoria. See Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino, Maria Sumia, Marja Työläjärvi & Nina Lindberg, Two Years of Gender Identity Service for Minor: Overrepresentation of Natal Girls with Severe Problems in Adolescent Development, 9 Child & Adolescent Psych. & Ment. Health 9 (2015).

154 144 Peaceful Coexistence Report The argument for allowing schools more discretion is somewhat appealing to me. More discretion would allow decision makers who are closer to each situation to make these choices. Suppose a young boy is physically small, delicate and psychologically identifies as female. As a result, he is bullied by the boys. Is it inappropriate for a teacher to allow him to play on the middle school girls team instead of the boys team, when the girls engaged in the competition welcome him? I certainly don t think so. But I also don t think that state legislation aimed at a once-size-fits-all solution constitutes a backlash against the LGBT community. This is especially so given that these decisions need to be made at the league level, since they involve competition and no individual team should be allowed to give itself an advantage in this way. Moreover, particularly in today s political climate, I can see why teachers would prefer a hard and fast rule they must follow rather than have to deal with conflicting demands on the subject (even if OCR had not already raised the issue). We live in a world in which many issues are resolved in favor of those who scream the loudest and most insistently rather than in favor of principle, practicality or even majority sentiment. The result predictably is a cacophony of escalating demands. This in turn leads traditional decision makers (in this case coaches, teachers, principals, and school boards) to yearn for an easy answer: My hands are tied; the higher ups have commanded me to follow their rules. The result is that there are no counterweights to the tendency toward the centralization of power. In this case, when the Department of Education or when state legislatures attempt to bind local schools to a one size fits all rule, there is less push back from the schools than there might otherwise be. The result has been a poisonous concentration of power at the center. Use of Restrooms: Many of the state legislative bills referred to by Commissioner Achtenberg prohibit the use of women s restrooms set by men (and vice versa). 41 They are controversial only 41 Again, the most talked-about such bill has been North Carolina s H.B. 2, which in addition to the provisions discussed supra at n.33, had provisions dealing with restroom assignment. There is no doubt this bill was passed in a hurry. Part of the reason for haste stemmed from the City of Charlotte s strange treatment in its ordinance of restrooms in businesses open to the public. The Charlotte ordinance repealed a provision of the Charlotte Code that allowed businesses to maintain sex-segregated [r]estrooms, shower rooms, bathhouses and similar facilities which are in their nature distinctly private. The intent seems to have been to allow transsexuals and perhaps transgenders to use the restrooms of their choice rather than the ones intended for members of their biological sex. In doing so, the City Council seems to have eliminated the ability of these businesses to maintain separate restrooms for men and women at all. This appears to be a case of very poor drafting. Under H.B. 2, the maintenance of sex-specific multi- or single-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities by businesses open to the public is declared not to constitute illegal sex discrimination. Weirdly, few seem to have noticed that such businesses can still choose to designate its restrooms and changing rooms by gender rather than biological sex if they if what they desire to do. Because North Carolina doesn t prohibit gender identity discrimination in the first place, there was no need to declare in H.B. 2 that the maintenance of separate restrooms and changing facilities based on gender identity does not constitute illegal gender identity discrimination. For the reasons I discussed in the section on Mississippi law above, I do not believe gender-specific as opposed to sex-specific restrooms and changing facilities work well in the typical case, since they make it difficult to prevent voyeurs and pranksters. But it s not up to me. Under North Carolina law, business owners are not prevented from

155 Commissioners Rebuttals 145 because they group transgenders with their biological/anatomical sex rather than with the sex they psychologically identify with something that would have seemed ordinary and unobjectionable a decade or so ago, but which has become anything but uncontroversial. According to the Human Rights Campaign web site cited by Commissioner Achtenberg, this is the primary form the anti-transgender bills it complains of take. 42 It is very unlikely any of these bills would have been drafted in the absence of actions like that of OCR in requiring the use of the girls locker room for changing by an anatomically intact boy who psychologically identifies as a girl or like that of the City of Charlotte s ordinance. 43 I note that such proposals appear to be quite popular. 44 Is that because the public is motivated by animus against transgenders? Or that the public is complicit in thinly-veiled attempts to turn back the clock as Commissioner Achtenberg alleges? I don t think so. While not all of them are well-drafted to accomplish what I believe to be their aim, none strike me as anything but honest efforts to deal with an issue. In theory, one can imagine separate restrooms based on sex or separate restrooms based on gender. For reasons that most Americans agree with, these bills choose sex as the deciding factor. South Dakota s H.B is actually quite modest. 45 It applies only to public schools. The rules applicable to private facilities will continue to be set the way they always have been creating gender-specific facilities. (In other words, the law is back to where it was before the City of Charlotte effectively prohibited both sex-specific and gender-specific facilities.) By contrast, H.B. 2 does require multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities in public schools and government offices to be designated by biological sex, defined as the physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person s birth certificate, rather than gender. Again, I believe there are good and sufficient reasons for designating private facilities in this manner (and it is certainly what most people understood the custom to have been for as far back as anyone can remember). The tough case is the transsexual one whose anatomy has been altered to better reflect the individual s preferred status. I note that, unlike Kansas, North Carolina does alter birth certificates after surgery of that kind has occurred. 42 I note that these bills are being proposed to deal with sexual privacy concerns and not religion and thus they are not properly part of this report. But since Commission Achtenberg has brought them up, I believe I need to respond. 43 For the OCR action, see supra at n. 36; for the City of Charlotte s ordinance, see supra at An effort to repeal a Houston transgender-rights ordinance that was thought to give transgenders the right to use the restroom of their choice, rather than the one that corresponds to their actual sex, passed overwhelmingly. Valerie Richardson, Houston Bathroom Bill Rejected by Voters, Washington Times (Nov. 3, 2015), available at 45 Some of the other state bills are more far-reaching. In Massachusetts, H.1320 would state in full: An Act relative to privacy and safety in public accommodations. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Section 1. Section 7 of chapter 4 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following clause: Fifty-ninth, The meaning of gender identity shall be distinct from that of sex and sexual orientation. Access to lawfully, sex segregated facilities, accommodations, resorts, and

156 146 Peaceful Coexistence Report by the owner/occupier of the property involved and enforceable in the way they have always have been through criminal and/or civil actions in trespass. H.B states in full: FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to restrict access to certain restrooms and locker rooms in public schools. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA: Section 1. That chapter be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read: The term, biological sex, as used in this Act, means the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person's chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth. Section 2. That the code be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read: amusement, as well as educational, athletic, and therapeutic activities and programs, shall be controlled by an individual s anatomical sex of male and female, regardless of that individual s gender identity. As I interpret this bill, it applies to restrooms that are sex-segregated, whether on public or private property. It would assign an individual who has had the surgery necessary to change one s primary sex organs to resemble those of the opposite sex to the restrooms reserved for one s new sex. Anatomy, not chromosomes, controls. One question I might have is how much room for choice it was intended to have. Suppose the owners of a restaurant heavily frequented by transgenders choose to maintain gender-specific rather than sex-specific restrooms. My read of the text (without having looked at anything else) is that they could do exactly that, at least provided they mark the restrooms clearly. I cannot say whether that was the intent of the drafters, but it certainly might have been. Oklahoma s S.B states: An Act relating to public health; prohibiting the use of certain facilities under certain circumstances; directing promulgation of rules; providing for codification; and providing an effective date. BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA: Section 1. New Law A new section of the law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section of Title 63, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: A. It shall be unlawful for a person to use a gender-specific restroom when that person s biological gender is contrary to that of the gender-specific restroom. B. The State Board of Health shall promulgate rules to implement the provisions of this act. Section 2. This act shall become effective November 1, The Oklahoma proposal does not make use of the sex / gender distinction that has entered the vocabulary of late. But it gets the point across. Again, I do not believe it rules out the possibility of restrooms that are not genderspecific. A private business that believes its customers would prefer restrooms divided in some different way presumably is free to do so if it makes it clear to customers that is what it has done. What it does is ensures the user of a typical sex-specific restroom that only members of one biological sex are permitted in that restroom.

157 Commissioners Rebuttals 147 Every restroom, locker room, and shower room located in a public elementary or secondary school that is designated for student use and is accessible by multiple students at the same time shall be designated for and used only by students of the same biological sex. In addition, any public school student participating in a school sponsored activity off school premises which includes being in a state of undress in the presence of other students shall use those rooms designated for and used only by students of the same biological sex. Section 3. That the code be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read: If any student asserts that the student's gender is different from the student's biological sex, and if the student's parent or guardian consents to that assertion in writing to a public school administrator, or if the student is an adult or an emancipated minor and makes the assertion in writing to a public school administrator, the student shall be provided with a reasonable accommodation. A reasonable accommodation is one that does not impose an undue hardship on a school district. A reasonable accommodation may not include the use of student restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms designated for use by students of the opposite biological sex if students of the opposite biological sex are present or could be present. A reasonable accommodation may include a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom, or the controlled use of a restroom, locker room, or shower room that is designated for use by faculty. The requirement to provide a reasonable accommodation pursuant to this section does not apply to any nonpublic school entity. Note that South Dakota s proposal attempts to deal with the genuine problem of what to do with the case of a student whose sex and gender identity do not match up. 46 Consider the case of the biological/anatomical boy who nevertheless psychologically identifies as a girl. There is a long, unfortunate history of other children taunting or bullying such a child. Rightly or wrongly, the child may have safety fears. At the same time, allowing such a child to use the girls restroom 46 Note that this is not a new problem. It is only a new vocabulary used to describe the problem. Our great, great grandparents had to grapple with the problem of the student who didn t fit other people s conception of what a member of that student s sex should be like. That is not to say that they always dealt with it well or that we should necessarily respond in the same way we did. But it is nevertheless useful to remember that we are not the first to have to address the issue. It is also worth pointing out that, contrary to what some commentators have been suggesting, the pending bills are not the first time the use of the wrong restroom has been criminalized. Knowingly walking into the women s room if one is a man or into the men s room if one is a woman has always been a crime (unless one has reason to believe that the owner/occupier has granted permission). It is the crime of trespass. Walking into any part of a building without the owner/occupier s permission is trespass (though an owner/occupier would need to press charges in order for a prosecution to take place). If the restroom door has a signed that says Women, this is understood to mean that men do not have the owner/occupier s permission to enter. Similarly, if the door says staff only, it is understood to mean that customers do not have the owner/occupier s permission to enter. Violators may be prosecuted.

158 148 Peaceful Coexistence Report or change in the girl s locker room may raise legitimate issues of sexual privacy for the girls. The South Dakota bill attempts to eliminate the possibility that the child is just trying to be a pill (yes, some students do that) by requiring the student s parent to consent to the claim that the student s sex and gender identity don t match up. In such a case, the school district would be required to make a reasonable accommodation for that student, such as a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom, but not the use of the restroom designated for the opposite sex. Here s the $64,000 question: Why it is offensive to the Human Rights Campaign to classify people by actual sex for restroom assignment, but okay to classify them by gender? Consider, for example, the case of an anatomical male who psychologically identifies with females and prefers the use of female pronouns, but who nevertheless prefers to use the men s room. As an anatomical male, should this male who identifies as female be able to use the men s room? Or should all transgenders be required to use the restroom assigned to their gender (rather than their anatomical sex)? If the answer is that transgenders should have their choice or restrooms, what does that do to the notion of equality? So-called cisgenders (i.e. individuals who identify psychologically with their actual sex) do not get to choose which restrooms they get to use. Why should transgenders have options when cisgenders do not? Ultimately, the logic of the movement to allow transgenders the choice to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender, rather than the restroom that corresponds to their actual sex, is that everybody must be given the choice of which restroom to use. If so, that means unisex restrooms are the only principled alternative. Everybody gets to choose, which quickly collapses into nobody gets to choose, since only one choice will be offered. The South Dakota proposal appears to be a common-sense solution to the problem of ensuring sexual privacy for all students. The notion that the use of restrooms should be governed by one s gender identity rather than one s anatomical sex suffers from two problems. First, restroom fixtures are designed with anatomy in mind, not with one s psychological state. A female-to-male transgender who has not undergone surgery in an effort to anatomically conform to the male physique cannot efficiently make use of the fixtures of the men s restroom. Second, and more important, opening restrooms to individuals based on their gender identity rather than actual sex opens up all kinds of issues. Of the over 6000 respondents to the Williams Institute s National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 38 percent identified either strongly (15 percent) or somewhat (23 percent) with the identity Two Spirit. 47 Would that mean that they would be entitled to use both restrooms? Would it mean that when they are feeling more feminine, they should use the women s restroom and when they are feeling more masculine, they should use the men s room? The more difficult it is to determine an individual s eligibility for a particular 47 See Ann P. Haas, Philip L. Rodgers & Jody L. Herman, Suicide Attempts Among Transgender and Gender Non- Conforming Adults: Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey 6 (January 2014).

159 Commissioners Rebuttals 149 restroom at a glance, the more difficult it will be to exclude voyeurs and pranksters. 48 If the point of opposition to proposals like South Dakota s is to introduce uncertainty and chaos into public restrooms, it will work just fine. 49 By contrast, the point of South Dakota s proposal appears to be to protect the sexual privacy of as many students as possible, while discouraging pranks and voyeurism. That s a good thing. Conversion Therapy: One of the bills mentioned on the Human Rights Campaign web site would apparently have authorized therapists to conduct conversion therapy a method of counseling designed to cause individuals who believe or fear they may be gay, lesbian, bisexual or 48 Cf. Jessica Chin, University Of Toronto Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Reduced After Voyeurism Reports, Huffington Post (Oct. 6, 2015)(discussing sex-integrated restrooms). 49 Kansas once allowed an individual to change the sex reported on his or her birth certificate either by signing an affidavit stating that the sex was incorrectly recorded or by submitting a medical certificate substantiating that a physiological or anatomical change occurred. The Governor is now moving forward with a policy change that would allow such alterations only if the person signs an affidavit attesting that his or her sex was incorrectly indicated in the first place and provides medical records to back up that affidavit. This is thought by the Commission majority to be anti-transgender. But these are birth certificates, not life-style certificates. Kansas has the right to keep records that accurately reflect the facts of a birth. It s about truth. And truth cannot be pro- or anti-lgbt. It s just truth. As much as some individuals born as males may identify psychologically with females, as much as they may exercise their right to adopt female habits and dress, as much as they may undergo surgery and other physiological treatments in order to cause their physical bodies to better resemble females indeed as much as we might even support them in those endeavors, they are not in fact members of the female sex (or vice versa). When every cell in an individual s body contains chromosomes identifying that individual s sex, Kansas is not required to pretend otherwise in its official records, especially not retroactively to birth. For my colleagues to suggest that Kansas is acting unconstitutionally is Orwellian. See Statement of Commissioners Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow, available at: This is not to say that another state could not choose to record on its birth certificates different information such as what is typically called gender. While that individual may have been born into one biological sex, he may identify psychologically with the opposite sex (or even with some non-binary alternative) and may adopt its habits and traits. In doing so, he demonstrates that his gender is not the same as his biological sex. But it is not so easy to record gender rather than sex, precisely because it is so variable. At birth, only sex is revealed. And even after an individual s gender asserts itself, it can change. Some identify as having two spirits ; others say they are neither male nor female in gender. Given that, it is doubtful a state would be interested in recording gender rather than sex on its birth certificates. Moreover, it is not clear why anyone should be dismayed by any of this. Note that nothing turns on what one s birth certificate says about one s sex in Kansas. It does not determine what restroom one can use. It does not determine what school athletic teams one can join or what jail cell one should occupy in the event of arrest. Those are questions that are left for another day. Nor does it determine whether an individual should be treated with courtesy and respect when they have chosen to lead their lives in a transgender manner. That is a question that must be answered by each individual American. There may well be circumstances, for example, under which transsexuals (those who have had surgery) may wish to have some way to identify their status to others. But in Kansas at least birth certificates are not the way to do that.

160 150 Peaceful Coexistence Report transgender to be heterosexual and cisgender instead. In this case, the web site did provide information on the bill, so I was able to find it quickly. It was H.B in the Oklahoma Legislature, entitled The Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act. Like the sex-specific restroom bills referred to in the previous paragraph, this bill is outside the scope of this report in that it does not have anything to do with religious liberty. Nevertheless, since Commissioner Achtenberg uses it as evidence of a backlash against LGBTs, I feel obligated to address it briefly. It is not quite clear why this proposal was thought necessary. Perhaps there was a fear that some state administrative agency or local government would outlaw the treatment or some professional association would forbid its members from offering this treatment. In this regard it is worth pointing out that several jurisdictions have indeed outlawed conversion therapy for minors. 50 Note the obvious: These prohibitions apply even in cases where both the minor and the minor s parents would like the minor to have that treatment. It limits people s options. By contrast, the Oklahoma proposal was designed solely to ensure that an option will be available. It does not require anyone to take it. It s interesting to compare the laws that prohibit conversion therapy for minors with the lack of laws prohibiting minors from obtaining surgery designed to give them the anatomical appearance of the opposite sex (This is sometimes referred to a sex change operation or gender reassignment surgery. ) Conversion therapy is non-invasive. It is just psychological therapy. This kind of surgery on the other hand, literally mutilates the body and is irreversible. Yet in Oregon, for example, the age of consent for surgery is 15 (even without parental consent) and recently Oregon s Medicaid program began to cover such surgery. 51 If there were really a backlash against transgenderism, that would be unthinkable. Just as generals are always fighting the last war, political activists are always imagining that yesterday s powerless minority is still powerless. In our own minds, we are all always the underdog. 50 See New Jersey P.L. 2013, Chapter 150, available at Oregon H.B. 2307, amending ORS et seq., available at D.C. Act , available at California S.B. 1172, amending Chapter 1 of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, available at Illinois Public Act , available at 51 Anemona Hartocollis, The New Girl in School: Transgender Surgery at 18, N.Y. Times (June 16, 2015). Hartocollis further wrote: [T]he number of teenagers going through gender reassignment has been growing amid wider acceptance of transgender identity, more parental comfort with the treatment and the emergence of a number of willing practitioners. Now advocates like Empire State Pride Agenda are fighting for coverage at an earlier age, beginning with hormone blockers at the onset of puberty, saying it is more seamless for a teenage boy to transition to becoming an adult woman, for example, if he does not first become a full-bodied man.

161 Commissioners Rebuttals 151 The First Amendment Defense Act: Commissioner Achtenberg also criticizes the First Amendment Defense Act ( FADA ). I agree with many of the criticisms that are made by the authorities cited in her Statement. But since those authorities published their commentary, FADA has undergone an additional draft. Many of the problems have already been corrected. If passed, FADA would essentially prohibit the federal government from penalizing persons on account of their support of the exclusivity of traditional opposite-sex marriage. Its operative clause (Section 3) would state: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes, speaks, or acts in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage. FADA was thought to be appropriate by its supporters on account of a statement by the Solicitor General during oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges. When asked whether religious schools that maintain an opposition to same-sex marriage could, for that reason, lose their taxexempt status, he candidly replied, [I]t s certainly going to be an issue. 52 Both the Solicitor General and the Justices were thoroughly familiar with Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983), a case in which the Supreme Court had upheld the authority of the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of a university that engages in race discrimination. Objections were raised (rightly in my view) that such a law should not apply to a government official or employee whose job it is to issue marriage licenses or whose job it is to review tax returns and determine whether taxpayers have correctly listed their filing status. As a result, a new draft of FADA was produced that exempted Federal employees acting within the scope of their employment from its coverage. Section 6(3)(B) Harvard law professor Mary Anne Glendon predicted in 2004 that if same-sex marriage became law, the United States would follow the European experience in becoming intolerant towards those who opposed the change in law. "As much as one may wish to live and let live," Glendon wrote during the same-sex marriage debate in Massachusetts, "the experience in other countries reveals that once these arrangements become law, there will be no live-and-let-live policy for those who differ. Gay-marriage proponents use the language of openness, tolerance, and diversity, yet one foreseeable effect of their success will be to usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination... Every person and every religion that disagrees will be labeled as bigoted and openly discriminated against. The ax will fall most heavily on religious persons and groups that don't go along. Religious institutions will be hit with lawsuits if they refuse to compromise their principles." Mary Ann Glendon, For Better or Worse?, Wall St. J. (Feb. 25, 2004). 53 See, e.g., Walter Olson, Gay Marriage and Religious Rights: Say Nada to FADA, Newsweek (Sept. 10, 2015).

162 152 Peaceful Coexistence Report Another set of objections were raised (again, rightly in my view) that in awarding certain privileges, such as ambassadorships, the President should be able to consider all aspects of an individual s values, character and political or social views. In response, the new draft limited the scope of FADA s definition of discriminatory action. Section 3(b). A third set of objections (mostly correct in my view) were aimed at the fact that a wide set of persons arguably would be covered by the proposed Act. The new draft specifically exempted publicly traded for-profit entities, federal for-profit contractors, acting within the scope of their contracts, and medical facilities and nursing homes with respect to visitation and recognition of a designated representative for the purpose of healthcare decision making. There may be other rough spots in the proposal that need smoothing. Contrary to popular belief, the drafting of a statute that does what you want it to do (and not what you don t want it to do) requires skill, experience, imagination and a willingness to go through many drafts. There is one more objection that has been repeatedly made and is not been dealt with in the new draft the fact that FADA protects only those who oppose same-sex marriage; it does not protect those who support it. It is therefore not content neutral to use the terms favored by First Amendment scholars. It s easy to see reasons why the sponsors of FADA might not even think to include protections for supporters of same-sex marriage: The supporters were the victors. Obergefell v. Hodges guarantees the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples. No one has called for institutions that support same-sex marriage to lose their tax-exempt status. Members of Congress, almost certainly rightly, believe that there is a danger of retaliation against opponents of same-sex marriage, but there is no equivalent danger in the other direction. Should the Constitution be construed to forbid FADA s one-way protection? My instinct is no. There are two categories of cases that have come up repeatedly over time efforts to suppress or ban speech and efforts to channel speech through time, place and manner regulation. While it is not always easy to tell them apart, in the former case, it shouldn t matter if Congress attempted to suppress just expressions of opposition to same-sex marriage or both expressions of opposition and support (i.e. all discussion) of same-sex marriage. Either approach would clearly violate the First Amendment. On the other hand, when it comes to regulation of time, place and manner, a lack of content neutrality can be a sign of nefarious purpose. If Congress bans posters in opposition to same-sex marriage on the Washington Metro system, citing their political nature, but does not ban posters in support of same-sex marriage, that is obviously a problem. FADA is neither of those things. It is a declaration that it will not penalize those who have views in opposition to what has been national policy since Obergefell. A declaration that it will not penalize those who agree with national policy seems a bit unnecessary. If that turns out to be untrue i.e. if someone is punished for agreeing with the national policy toward same-sex marriage it seems to me they are better off if FADA were law. They could argue the both sides

163 Commissioners Rebuttals 153 of the same-sex marriage debate must be treated alike, and so if opponents of same-sex marriage are protected from retaliation, they must be protected from retaliation too. Under the circumstances, I can t understand those who would vote against FADA on the ground that it is one-sided. Passing FADA would eliminate retaliation of one kind and increase that likelihood that a court would rule against retaliation of the other kind (if it were to occur). Without FADA, no one is protected. One the other hand, I have not yet heard any argument for why supporters of FADA should not be willing to protect supporters as well as opponents of same-sex marriage. When Edmund Burke argued for magnanimity in politics, he wasn t only speaking to the victors.

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165 Commissioners Rebuttals 155 Commissioners Achtenberg, Castro, Kladney, Narasaki, and Yaki Rebuttal I. A new wave of laws is being proposed to limit the freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. In recent months, there has been nothing short of a tsunami of legislative proposals, the purpose of which is to eviscerate the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) persons - using religious liberties as the alleged justification. As of this writing, more than 100 anti-lgbt bills have been or are being considered in twenty-two states. 1 In late March and early April alone, both Mississippi 2 and North Carolina 3 enacted statutes that condone LGBT employment discrimination, restrict access of LGBT persons to public accommodations and services, and proscribe restroom use when an individual s gender identity conflicts with the sex assigned to him or her at birth. 4 1 Anti-LGBT Religious Exemption Legislation Across the Country, American Civil Liberties Union, available at see also Everything You Need to Know About the Wave of 100+ Anti-LGBT Bills Pending in States, The Huffington Post, April 15, 2016, available at 2 Mississippi Governor Signs Law Allowing Businesses to Refuse Service to Gay People, The Washington Post, April 5, 2016, available at For the text of the law, see House Bill NO. 1523, Mississippi Legislature, Regular Session 2016, available at 3 North Carolina Governor Signs Controversial Transgender Bill, CNN, March 24, 2016, available at In addition to addressing LGBT issues, this law supercede[s] and preclude[s] the ability of jurisdictions within the state from raising the minimum wage for workers. House Bill 2: An Act to Provide for Single-Sex Multiple Occupancy Bathroom and Changing Facilities in Schools and Public Agencies And to Create Statewide Consistency in Regulation of Employment and Public Accommodations, March 23, 2016, available at 4 Transgender is defined as being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth. Merriam-Webster, available at Gender identity is defined as the totality of physical and behavioral traits that are designated by a culture as masculine or feminine [or] a person's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male or female. Merriam-Webster, available at Gender identity is also understood as a circumstance involving [o]ne's internal, deeply held sense of one's gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices. Unlike gender expression gender identity is not visible to others. GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Transgender Issues, available at

166 156 Peaceful Coexistence Report The North Carolina legislature considered the cause of limiting LGBT civil rights to be so urgent that it convened its first special session in thirty-five years and adopted a bill pre-empting a Charlotte ordinance which would have outlawed LGBT discrimination. 5 Also included in that bill was a shameful provision, specifically designed to restrict bathroom use by transgender persons. The legislature s deliberations took a total of twelve hours, from start to finish. 6 The governor signed the bill in the dead of night. 7 Corporate leaders, chambers of commerce, and 5 An Ordinance Amending Chapter 2 of the Charlotte City Code Entitled Administration [sic] Chapter 12 Entitled Human Relations, [sic], and Chapter 22 Entitled Vehicles for Hire, available at For a transcript of diverse and compelling public comments preceding the Charlotte Council s vote on its anti-discrimination ordinance, see Item No. 12: Non-Discrimination Ordinance, Business Meeting Minute Book 140, Feb. 22, 2016, pp , available at dinance. 6 As recorded: What happened in North Carolina could prove to be the deadly recipe that helps other discriminatory bills actually make it across the finish line. Indeed, the rushed special session was a perfect recipe for avoiding all of the various resistance that has held back these bills from even being considered in previous years. For example, the bill s language was only made public mere minutes before it was considered. The committee first tasked with voting on it had to request to even have five minutes to read it. There was only a total of 30 minutes of public comment, meaning there was basically no opportunity for public input. (Polling showed that there was bipartisan opposition across the state to overturning Charlotte s ordinance.). This meant that transgender people did not have the notice or option of traveling to the capitol to share their stories. Businesses had no opportunity to chime in about the economic impact on the state. Though companies like Dow Chemical, Biogen, and Red Hat software tweeted their opposition during the day, it was too little too late. In short, the anti-transgender motives of the lawmakers eager to pass this legislation did not have to pass through any filters before it became law. How North Carolina Become the Most Anti-LGBT State in Less Than A Day, ThinkProgress, March 24, 2016, available at See also North Carolina Passes Law Blocking Measures to Protect LGBT People, National Public Radio, March 24, 2016, available at and BREAKING: North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory to Sign Anti-LGBT Bill Immediately: Sweepingly Broad Legislation Voiding All LGBT Nondiscrimination Ordinances About to Become Law, The New Civil Rights Movement, available at gbt_bill_immediately. State legislatures passed, but governors vetoed, similar laws in Georgia and Virginia. See, e.g., Georgia Governor Vetoes Religious Freedom Bill Criticized as Anti-Gay, The Washington Post, March 28, 2016, available at and Virginia Governor Vetoes Anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Bill, The Huffington Post, March 30, 2016, available at 7 See, e.g., McCrory Signs Bill Overturning Transgender Ordinance, ABC Eyewitness News, March 23, 2016, available at

167 Commissioners Rebuttals 157 local businesses protested. 8 Some withdrew expansion plans. 9 Others threatened to move out of North Carolina, altogether. 10 The National Football League and the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) registered concern. In fact, the NBA threatened to move its All-Star Game from North Carolina if the governor and the legislature do not reverse course. 11 There is even international concern being voiced. Great Britain has issued an advisory warning travelers to be aware of controversial new laws in North Carolina and Mississippi, 12 cautioning that LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation recently passed in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. 13 The North Carolina and Mississippi laws allow state and private actors to discriminate freely against LGBT people in a variety of private commercial settings including employment and public accommodations. One of the most dangerous provisions of the North Carolina law requires transgender people to use restrooms for the sex designated on their birth certificates rather than the sex with which they identify. There are no known, reported problems with transgender people using restrooms befitting their gender identities in the entire United States. The bathroom provision in this law is designed to garner public attention, create antipathy toward - and fear of - transgender people, and appease a political base that wants to see LGBT rights dealt a blow. 8 See, e.g., Anti-Gay Laws Bring Backlash in Mississippi and North Carolina, The New York Times, April 5, 2016; Companies Reconsidering North Carolina Over LGBT Rights, The Chicago Tribune, April 1, 2016, available at and National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Condemns the Shameful State-Sanctioned Discrimination Law Passed in North Carolina, WBTV.com, March 25, 2016, available at 9 See, e.g., As PayPal Cancels Expansion, the Consequences of N.C. s anti-lgbt Law Get Real, Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2015, available at and Deutsche Bank Halts North Carolina Growth Plan Over Anti-Gay Law, Bloomberg, April 12, 2016, available at 10 See, e.g., TV, Movie Production Companies to Leave NC Over LGBT Law, FOX8, April 1, 2016, available at 11 See, e.g., North Carolina Anti-Gay Law May Jeopardize 2017 NBA All-Star Game, USA Today, March 25, 2016, available at and NBA Commish: Necessary to Change Bathroom Law to Hold All-Star Game in Charlotte, Breitbart, April 25, 2015, available at 12 Britain Issues Warning for LGBT Travelers Visiting North Carolina and Mississippi, The Washington Post, April 20, 2016, available at 13 Foreign Travel Advice, USA: Local Laws and Customs, GOV.UK, available at

168 158 Peaceful Coexistence Report The bathroom restriction is a deep affront to the dignity of transgender people - and even more critically, a threat to their physical safety. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights noted this concern in its April 18, 2016 statement condemning these laws. 14 A transgender woman forced to use a men s restroom certainly risks verbal harassment at a minimum and physical or sexual assault at worst. A transgender man in a women s restroom may not fare well, either. Further, there is a related, serious, negative impact on transgender people s mental health, as well. Recent research indicates that the denial of access to [bathrooms] had a significant relationship to suicidality. 15 Trans Lifeline, a suicide prevention hotline serving transgender people, reports that incoming calls have nearly doubled since North Carolina restricted use of public bathrooms based on birth certificate gender markers. 16 The North Carolina law stands to worsen the situation by allowing doctors and mental health professionals to withhold treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity of the person in need. This provision was hastily enacted, even though it appears to run afoul of the Affordable Care Act, 17 Medicaid, 18 and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Statement Condemning Recent State Laws and Pending Proposals Targeting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, April 18, 2016, available at 15 Seelman, Kristie L., Transgender Adults Access to College Bathrooms and Housing and the Relationship to Suicidality, Journal of Homosexuality, Feb. 25, 2016, available at 16 After North Carolina s Law, Trans Suicide Hotline Calls Double, The Daily Beast, April 20, 2016, available at 17 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 42 U.S.C. sec et seq. (2010). 18 Social Security Act, Title XIX, 42 U.S.C. sec et seq. (as amended 1965). 19 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, 42 USC sec. 1395dd (as amended 2008). Religious freedom laws may create special problems for LGBT medical patients: LGBT exemptions, though, could have a fatal flaw: They may conflict with federal law. The Affordable Care Act prohibits sex discrimination in any program or facility that gets federal funding for health-care services, which includes Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services interprets genderidentity discrimination as part of sex discrimination and has enforced the rule with that in mind, initiating a number of investigations into complaints against medical providers related to harassment of and lack of coverage for trans people. That interpretation is not expressly written in the law, though. And discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not currently banned for all doctors and health-care providers; a proposed update to federal guidelines on that topic is pending. Compared to new laws that would protect wedding-related businesses, though, medical professionals have a lot more power over the people they provide services to. When we re talking about doctors or counselors, we are talking about people who are much closer to the patients, in situations that are much more intimate and private and confidential, said Elizabeth Sepper, an associate law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The harm of discriminatory denial in those circumstances can be really severe in that one makes oneself vulnerable to one s doctor or one s counselor in a way that you might not when you re coming into a bakery.

169 Commissioners Rebuttals 159 At least some in law enforcement understand the enforceability and constitutional issues at play here. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, South Carolina has voiced his objection to an antitransgender bathroom bill being considered in his state. Lott says the bill is unnecessary and unenforceable and would expose his department to costly litigation. In the 41 years I have been in law enforcement in South Carolina, Lott writes, I have never heard of a transgender person attacking or otherwise bothering someone in a restroom. This is a non-issue. Lott says to be enforced, a law enforcement officer would have to determine the sex of every person entering a restroom in the state. The sheriff also says the bill would raise due process and Fourth Amendment issues. 20 Whether or not the North Carolina law, and similar ones which may be enacted, will survive judicial scrutiny will be determined in time. 21 It bodes well that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, under the jurisdiction of which North Carolina is situated, ruled on April 19, 2016 that a transgender male public school student could sue his school district for the freedom to use restrooms designated for males. 22 The Court agreed with the teen that the U.S. Department of Education may interpret sex discrimination under Title IX to allow a transgender student to choose the bathroom which fits his or her gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth. When Doctors Refuse to Treat LGBT Patients, The Atlantic, April 19, 2016, available at 20 Sheriff Leon Lott: Sen. Lee Bright s Bathroom bill Unnecessary, Unenforceable, WISTV.com, April 13, 2016, available at see also Transgender Bathroom Hysteria, Cont d., The New York Times, April 18, 2016, available at 21 The American Civil Liberties Union has already sued the state of North Carolina in U.S. District Court. The Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in Carcano v. McCrory, No. 1:16-cv-236, filled March 28, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, is available at 22 G.G. v. Glouchester County School Board, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No , April 19, 2016, available at See also What a Federal Appeals Court s Ruling Could Mean for North Carolina s Bathroom Law, The Washington Post, April 20, 2016, available at

170 160 Peaceful Coexistence Report II. These laws and proposals represent an orchestrated, nationwide effort by extremists to promote bigotry, cloaked in the mantle of religious freedom. The current spate of anti-lgbt laws is not the result of a spontaneous, populist revolt. It is a carefully-planned strategy, being undertaken to punish LGBT people for having the temerity to pursue equality and prevailing in the U.S. Supreme Court. 23 Liberty Counsel, which calls itself a Christian ministry and litigation agency, 24 but which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as a hate group, 25 is spearheading this assault on LGBT dignity, safety, and rights in at least twenty states. It is no secret that this effort is in retaliation for the pursuit of equality. The leader of Liberty Counsel, Mat Staver, has stated bluntly, "The Supreme Court in the 5-4 opinion on marriage in 2015 lit the house on fire. All we're trying to do is control the fire at this point in time." 26 Fighting LGBT equality under the law provides Liberty Counsel its bread and butter. Staver is reknown for his inflammatory rhetoric. For example, he states that [The marriage fight] is the thing that revolutions literally are made of. This would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and to Christians around the country, than anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing. This would be the thing that revolutions are made of. This could split the country right in two. This could cause another civil war. 27 Staver also urges civil disobedience in one of the most offensive, incendiary ways possible; by claiming that Christians opposed to marriage equality are akin to persons of conscience facing the Nazi regime: 23 See, e.g., United States v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct (2013); and Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct (2015). 24 Advancing the Mission Through Three Pillars of Ministry, Liberty Counsel, available at 25 See, e.g., Liberty Counsel: Extremist Group Info, Southern Poverty Law Center, available at and SPLC Adds Seven New Organizations to Anti-Gay Hate Group List, Truth Wins Out, Feb. 28, 2014, available at 26 Who s Behind the New LGBT Bathroom Laws?, CBS Evening News, April 13, 2016, available at 27 Liberty Counsel Continues Penchant for Inciting Revolution, Good As You, April 14, 2014, available at

171 Commissioners Rebuttals 161 as a believer, you cannot obey something that is contrary to God's law. And we would easily say, well, what would happen if the government forced you turn over a Jew in Nazi Germany? All of us would say we wouldn't do that, we wouldn't listen to that. Well, we're about ready to walk into the moment." 28 Having lost the war on marriage equality, Liberty Counsel and its cohorts are seeking to move the battle against LGBT equality from marriage clerks offices into bathrooms. Unfortunately, groups like Liberty Counsel are not working in a vacuum. They would appear to have the tacit support of some national political figures as well as a major political party. 29 III. There is no justification for these laws and proposals. They are pretextual attempts to justify naked animus against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. These laws and proposals have nothing to do with sincerely held religious beliefs. Rather, they are put forward by those who evince a startling animus toward LGBT people. For example, Steve Crampton of Liberty Counsel has stated When you consider that the life of the average homosexual is not controlled by reason, not controlled by the will, it s really a life controlled by this lust, this passion, that has kind of overwhelmed them, and so you have kind of the essence of a lack of self control. 30 Matt Barber, also of Liberty Counsel, opines that homosexuality - is always and forever, 28 Mat Staver Will Disobey a SCOTUS Marriage Equality Ruling Just as He d Refuse to Turn a Jew Over to The Nazis, Right Wing Watch, March 13, 2015, available at 29 The Republican National Committee s Resolution Condemning Governmental Overreach Regarding Title IX Policies in Public Schools states that A person s sex is defined as the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined at conception, identified at birth by a person s anatomy, recorded on their official birth certificate, and can be confirmed by DNA testing and that [t]ransgender policies deal with students who choose to be designated by their desired gender identity; an identity that conflicts with their anatomical sex. Resolution Condemning Governmental Overreach Regarding Title IX Policies in Public Schools, Republican National Committee Counsel s Office, (undated), available at Specifically, [t]he Republican National Committee encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated. Id. 30 Liberty Counsel Extremist Group Info, Southern Poverty Law Center, supra note 28.

172 162 Peaceful Coexistence Report objectively and demonstrably wrong. It is never good, natural, right or praiseworthy. 31 The articulated rationales for the current crop of bills also demonstrate open anti-transgender bigotry. When South Carolina State Senator Lee Bright introduced a North Carolina-style bathroom bill on April 6, 2016, he stated that I've about had enough of this. I mean, years ago we kept talking about tolerance, tolerance, and tolerance, and now they want men who claim to be women to be able to go into bathrooms with children. And you got corporations who say this is okay. 32 Certainly, not all religious authorities or adherents agree that religion makes the adoption of these discriminatory laws an imperative. To the contrary, many people of faith actively oppose such laws. For example, Episcopal Bishop Brian R. Seage implored Mississippi s governor to veto his state s anti-lgbt legislation, writing Our baptismal covenant requires that each of us will respect the dignity of every human being. It does not provide an exception to that respect. The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi stands as one with our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community. We respect their painful journey as they have sought full inclusion in our society. Many of them share a Christian faith that is deep and profound. We should embrace their quest for equality and justice rather than placing obstacles in their pathway. I am aware that some Christian bodies say this legislation is needed. I disagree. It addresses a conflict which does not exist. The Episcopal Church embraces all persons who seek to follow our Lord, and we honor all persons who yearn for equality in this society. Our doors remain open to all God s children. 33 Legislators, obviously, are free to hold any religious views of their choosing. What they cannot do is enact discriminatory secular laws based upon those beliefs. No religion, including the orthodox Christianity to which Commissioner Kirsanow refers repeatedly in his statement, is 31 Id. 32 Sen. Lee Bright Introduces Bathroom Bill to SC Senate, WISTV.com, April 6, 2016, available at 33 Statement by the Rt. Rev. Brian R. Seage, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi: HB 1523 Press Release In Light of Senate Passage, Episcopal Café, March 31, 2016, available at

173 Commissioners Rebuttals 163 the official religion of the United States. No religion can be. The First Amendment makes this clear. We all know this. Photographers, florists, and bakers who follow any religion - or none at all - can refuse to sanctify a wedding in their hearts. What conservative religious adherents cannot do, however, is to discriminate in the stream of commerce based upon religious beliefs. Even when religious beliefs, sincere or otherwise, dictate thoughts, secular law controls actions. Providing commercial goods and services does not require that one blesses an event. Taking pictures is not testifying to one s spiritual endorsement of a legally recognized ceremony. Frosting a cake is not helping to celebrate something believe[d] to be a transgression of divine law. 34 Selling flowers is not contribut[ing] to a marriage celebration. 35 Those are secular, commercial quid pro quo transactions; straightforward exchanges of products or services for money. To claim otherwise simply is to try to darken the smokescreen that religious beliefs provide for anti-lgbt animus. Would this country, at this juncture in our evolution, support the right of a baker to refuse wedding services to an interracial, heterosexual couple based upon a sincerely held religious belief against miscegenation? Would our society condone a white photographer s refusal to take commemorative pictures of an African American doctoral student s graduation ceremony due to religious beliefs of racial superiority? Clearly not. Would society view similar denials to LGBT people as dignitary harm that is not alleviated even if one can easily obtain identical services elsewhere that U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Chai Feldblum describes LGBT people as suffering? 36 Clearly. IV. There must be no rush to judgment when it comes to this flood of bills. The North Carolina statute embodies a number of evils. It outlaws employment protections for LGBT people. It deprives people of access to public accommodations based upon specious claims of religious liberty. It denigrates transgender people, and jeopardizes their physical and mental health. It was adopted and signed in haste. Given the reverberations, there may be some North Carolina decision-makers already having second thoughts. The Missouri statute is equally heinous. In the more than twenty states with 100-plus bills outstanding, the range of discriminatory proposals aimed at LGBT people is broad and deep. 34 Statement of Commissioner Peter Kirsanow, USCCR Report, 2016, supra at Id. at Id. at 99.

174 164 Peaceful Coexistence Report The threats to employment protections, public accommodations, and transgender safety are clear and present. And the efforts to legalize such discrimination are coordinated. In particular, the bathroom bills are a solution in search of a problem. 37 Professor Tobias Barrington Wolff of the University of Pennsylvania Law School offers this critique: Proponents of these bathroom bills often talk about protecting children. The lieutenant governor of North Carolina released a video to justify that state s terrible new law in which he repeated the hysterical claim that policies that treat trans people respectfully would help sex offenders and pedophiles prey on women and children. This is absurd on its face. No one is allowed to lurk in a bathroom for improper reasons, regardless of gender; no policy about respecting trans people would ever change that; and protecting trans people does not put anyone else at risk. But you know who I do want to keep away from the children in my life? Anyone who spends his time trying to figure out how to pass a law that would make other people s genitals his business Fox News commentators Chris Wallace and Charles Krauthammer agree with this characterization. Wallace stated on camera that We actually decided to try to find out whether it is a public safety issue, whether it is a problem with transgender people misusing bathrooms to prey on others. And here s what the fact-checking group Politifact found: We haven't found any instances of criminals convicted of using transgender protections as cover in the United States. Neither have any left-wing groups or right-wing groups. Which brings me to Charles Krauthammer s comment, which is that this seems to be a solution in search of a problem." Fox Host: Bathroom Bills Are A Solution In Search Of A Problem, (VIDEO), Talking Points Memo Livewire, April 25, 2016, available at Charles Krauthammer s comments, which Wallace referenced, identified the North Carolina law as a solution in search of an issue. I mean, do we really have an epidemic of transgenders being evil in bathrooms across the country? I haven't heard of a single case. [Krauthammer] called it a very small problem at the edges of other problems having to do with gender identity that's become national precisely because Republicans in North Carolina decided it was a problem. Krauthammer: NC Bathroom Law Was a Solution In Search of an Issue, Fox News Insider, April 21, 2016, available at 38 Wolff, Tobias Barrington, The Ugly Fantasy at the Heart of Anti-Trans Bathroom Bills: Do Supporters of So- Called Bathroom Bills Want Trans People to Cease to Exist Altogether?, The Nation, March 25, 2016, available at

175 Commissioners Rebuttals 165 It really is that simple. Legislators must have the courage to see the homophobia and transphobia that drive this entire, orchestrated, nationwide campaign. Hopefully, most legislators will understand, and have the strength to resist these efforts of questionable merit.

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177 Commissioners Rebuttals 167 Commissioner Peter Kirsanow Rebuttal Responding to all the errors, misstatements, and mischaracterizations in my colleagues statements would require the wholesale destruction of an entire forest in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act. I will therefore only address two points. Response to Statement of Chairman Castro The answer to the question posed by the title of this briefing has been answered by the majority of my Commission colleagues with an unequivocal no. Any doubt that the majority maintains that nondiscrimination principles trump and/or extinguish principles of religious liberty was erased by their statements in response to the report. The majority s take on the primacy of nondiscrimination over religious freedom was perhaps most clearly and succinctly stated by Chairman Castro in the Commission s April 15, 2016 meeting. In responding to a proposed Tennessee bill that would provide an accommodation for therapists and counselors with moral objections to a patient s lifestyle by allowing the therapists to refer such patient to another counselor, Chairman Castro asked: So why is it even necessary for there to be an accommodation on any of this because of someone s sexual orientation? They [the therapists] shouldn t have to be accommodated. The services should just be provided. (Emphasis added) Chairman Castro asserts that religious liberty has been used in the past to justify slavery and invidious discrimination. Chairman Castro s singling out of Christianity is especially puzzling. At first I thought he surely meant to identify for opprobrium religions in addition to Christianity. But, as it happens, his venom is directed against American Christians past and present. Of course, there were Christian slave owners in America. That is indeed a repugnant period in American and Christian history but, unfortunately, unremarkable when viewed in the context of history as a whole. Slavery has been an almost universal institution. It is the abolition of slavery, largely because of individuals motivated by their Christianity, that is unusual. So, it is peculiar that the Chairman singles out Christianity for opprobrium in regard to slavery. Slavery has existed in almost every society and among the adherents of almost every major religion. But it was only in the Christian world that a serious critique of slavery arose. Those Christians who supported slavery were utterly unremarkable in the sweep of human affairs, no better or worse than millions of others throughout history. In contrast, it is remarkable, perhaps even astonishing, that there were Christians who rose far above the historical propensities of humankind to call for abolition as a religious and moral imperative.

178 168 Peaceful Coexistence Report In criticizing Christianity in regard to Islam and slavery, the Chairman fails to recognize that Islam s ties to slavery are at least as deep as those of Christianity. 1 It was the self-avowed Christian British Empire that initially ended its own involvement in the international slave trade and then acted to curtail the slave trade within the Muslim world. As the Middle Eastern scholar J.B. Kelley wrote: No movement of any consequence towards abolition ever arose of its own accord in the Muslim world; it was the reproach of Muslim slavery, not Christian, that men and boys were castrated for service in the harim; and it was a Christian nation, Britain, which led the campaign to end the Arab slave trade and to compel Muslim rulers to forbid it to their subjects.... It was [British officials], after all, who led the Arab tribes of the Persian Gulf to cease trading in their fellow- Muslims, the Somalis. 2 Religious believers were also in the forefront of the civil rights movement. Of course, the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement were disproportionately Christian ministers - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. C.K. Steele. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, perhaps our own Commission s most renowned member, was among them. More than 900 Catholics participated in the Selma protests and a log of out of town participants in the Selma protests included 140 priests, 50 sisters, 29 ministers, four rabbis. 3 Mary Parkman Peabody, the wife of a prominent Episcopal bishop, at the behest of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference travelled to Florida, engaged in civil disobedience, and spent two nights in jail. 4 A sense of modesty, humility, and perspective should temper our remarks about those who lived before us. We are all creatures of our own time, our minds and attitudes shaped by influences and assumptions of which we are largely unaware, our actions constrained by weighty 1 Bernard Lewis, THE MIDDLE EAST: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LAST 2,000 YEARS 124, 126 (1995) ( At first [the janissaries] were recruited exclusively from Christian captives and slaves, mainly by the devshirme ; To some extent the dwindling supply of captives and renegades from Europe could be made good by importing slaves from the Caucasus. Caucasian women had always been appreciated in the harems of the Middle East, and Caucasian menslaves had also played a role of some importance ). 2 J.B. Kelly, The European Empires and Islam, in FIGHTING THE RETREAT FROM ARABIA AND THE GULF: THE COLLECTED ESSAYS AND REVIEWS OF J.B. KELLY, VOL. I, (2013); see also Lewis, supra note 1 at 318 ( The abolition of legal chattel slavery [within the Ottoman Empire] was accomplished, in the main, by Western rule, interference, or influence, and did not evoke much concern or debate. ). 3 Paul Murray, 54 miles to freedom: Catholics were prominent in 1965 Selma march, NAT L CATH. REP., Mar. 7, 2015, 4 Robert D. McFadden, Mary Peabody, 89, Rights Activist, Dies, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 7, 1981, Karen Grigsby Bates, Why a Proper Lady Found Herself Behind Bars, NPR, Mar. 28, 2014,

179 Commissioners Rebuttals 169 responsibilities and unacknowledged self-interest. We all like to think that had we lived in the past we would be among the few righteous. But history is plain - the visionary righteous are few. Most of us are far more likely to have subscribed to the conventional wisdom of our time, or in good faith to have been unable to see our way clear to what is now considered self-evident. We cannot know the reasons future generations will condemn us. 5 All we can know is that they will indeed condemn us, and hope that they judge us with more charity than the Chairman does our predecessors. Response to Statement of Commissioners Achtenberg, Kladney, Yaki, and Chairman Castro 6 In footnote 35, Commissioner Achtenberg approvingly quotes Professor Ira Lupu: Despite Obergefell s nod to the existence of good faith religious opinion against same sex marriage, religious objections to same sex intimacy will ultimately retain no more respect than religious objections to racial integration and interracial intimacy. In a nation committed to a more Perfect Union, the arc of the religious universe is long, but it too bends toward justice. [footnotes omitted.] 7 What Professor Lupu argues for is the subordination of religious beliefs to the secular orthodoxy of the moment. This presumes religious beliefs are temporal rather than eternal. This fundamentally misapprehends the nature and quality of religious belief. It also misunderstands the lessons of history. Spectacularly so. The twentieth century had no shortage of those who believed that they were ushering in a new and better age, and that ushering in that age was worth silencing unpopular beliefs and squelching unpopular views. Some of those individuals lived in places such as the Soviet Union, Maoist China, and areas of the Middle East. Rhetorical flourishes about the arc of history or the religious universe bending toward justice are, tragically, often disproven by actual history. The history of totalitarian regimes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries should disabuse everyone of the notion that history s, or the religious universe s, arc necessarily bends in a particular direction, a predictable direction, a beneficent direction. Accepting that we are not inexorably moving toward an immanentized eschaton leads to the realization that we can make mistakes. Indeed, we can make potentially catastrophic mistakes like the triumphalist thought-conformity contemplated in footnote For example, at one time eugenics was a pet cause of the Progressive great and good. Today eugenics is publicly regarded with horror. See Thomas C. Leonard, Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era, J. OF ECON. PERSPECTIVES, Vol. 19, No. 4, 207 (2005), 6 For simplicity, throughout this section I will refer only to Commissioner Achtenberg, although I am of course referring also to the three other commissioners who signed this statement. 7 Achtenberg Statement, supra n. 35 at 40.

180 170 Peaceful Coexistence Report Such thought conformity may seem comfortable and enlightened when, during any given moment in the arc of history, the regnant thoughts, beliefs, and values are consistent with one s own. But when the prevailing thoughts and beliefs shift, as they inevitably do, such conformity can prove disastrous. That is precisely why religious liberty, freedom of belief, freedom of thought is so important. That is why it should be accommodated, whenever possible, in a manner that affords an appropriate balance with other constitutionally-protected rights. Without such accommodation for freedom of belief all other freedoms are not merely fragile, but illusory.

181 Panelists Written Statements 171 PANELISTS WRITTEN STATEMENTS Alan Brownstein My name is Alan Brownstein. I am a Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this briefing. I am going to focus my statement on issues relating to religious liberty and, in part, on the problem of reconciling religious liberty and government policies recognizing same-sex marriages and protecting same-sex couples against discrimination. The Limited Constitutional Constraints on State Action Burdening or Accommodating Religious Liberty The subject of this briefing - the problem of reconciling non-discrimination principles with civil liberties - confronts our society with difficult issues. As a legal matter, many cases, particularly those involving religious liberty concerns, raise complex doctrinal questions that challenge the sometimes limited analysis of past precedent. From a normative perspective, these problems are hard to resolve because important interests and values can be counted on both sides of these disputes. Some costs we would prefer not to incur will be unavoidable no matter what decision we reach. The job of evaluating and balancing the competing interests and values in controversies involving religious liberty claims will fall primarily, although not exclusively, on the political branches of government. Over the last twenty-five years, the Supreme Court has substantially narrowed the scope of both of the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Under the holding of Employment Division v. Smith, the Free Exercise Clause has been interpreted to provide substantially no protection to religious exercise against neutral laws of general applicability. 1 The rigor and enforceability of establishment clause principles restricting state aid to religious institutions and prohibiting the endorsement of religion through state sponsored displays have been seriously eroded as well. 2 Given this precedent and the strong likelihood that the current Court will follow this doctrinal approach, most church-state issues relating to religious liberty and equality in our society are going to be resolved through political deliberation rather than the constitutional adjudication of religion clause claims. 1 See Employment Div., Dept. of Human Res. of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). 2 See e.g., Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, (2000) (upholding direct grants to religious institutions distributed according to neutral criteria); Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002) (upholding voucher program subsidizing religious schools); Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005) (upholding Ten Commandments monument on state capitol grounds); Hein v. Freedom From Religion Found., Inc., 551 U.S. 587 (2007) (restricting taxpayer standing to litigate Establishment Clause claims).

182 172 Peaceful Coexistence Report The Court has decided two contemporary cases, Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah 3 and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 4 in which the religion clauses were successfully asserted as a shield against government interference with religious liberty. I do not believe that either case suggests a significant change in doctrinal direction by the Court. In Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, a case involving laws restricting ritual animal sacrifices performed by members of the Santeria faith, the Court employed a complex analysis to determine whether the challenged laws are sufficiently neutral and generally applicable to fall within the holding of Employment Division v. Smith. Because the Court considered multiple factors of indeterminate weight in concluding that the Free Exercise Clause was violated in this case, the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye decision is of uncertain precedential utility. It most clearly establishes that states cannot use ostensibly neutral and general laws as a form of religious gerrymander to discriminate against a specific religion. Most neutral laws of general applicability burdening religious exercise will not be vulnerable to such a challenge. While Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School is an important case, it is also unlikely to dramatically redirect the development of religion clause jurisprudence. In Hosanna- Tabor, the Supreme Court confirmed for the first time the existence of a ministerial exception grounded in the religion clauses of the First Amendment that immunizes the hiring of clergy from the operation of civil rights laws. However, the case holding is limited to persons who hold the title of minister, self-identify with that designation, and perform important religious functions as part of their professional duties. Moreover, every Federal Court of Appeals addressing the question had already recognized the existence of the ministerial exception. 5 There is no evidence that their doing so had any extraneous impact on other free exercise or establishment clause cases. Overwhelmingly, anti-discrimination laws are neutral laws of general applicability. Thus, aside from cases falling within the ministerial exception, or involving a religious gerrymander under Lukumi Babalu Aye, as a general rule these laws can be applied even when doing so has the effect of burdening the free exercise of religion. Accordingly, it will typically be up to the people and their elected representatives to resolve the tension between religious liberty concerns and non-discrimination policies. Political deliberation will determine whether discretionary 3 Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993). 4 Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. E.E.O.C., 132 S.Ct. 694 (2012). 5 Id. at 705.

183 Panelists Written Statements 173 accommodations are provided either through broadly stated statutes 6 or specific exemptions from general laws. 7 While the availability of exemptions from anti-discrimination laws for religious individuals and institutions will be determined by political decision-making in most situations, constitutional law will continue to impact legislative and executive decisions burdening or accommodating religious liberty in three distinct ways. First, in a relatively limited set of circumstances, some statutory or administrative religious accommodations will be struck down for violating the Establishment Clause. Second, freedom of speech and freedom of association claims may be asserted by religious associations and institutions to challenge anti-discrimination policies. Third, the conceptual analysis and arguments employed in constitutional opinions will influence political culture and attitudes. The reasoning of judicial opinions will sway the exercise of political discretion. As to constitutional constraints on the decision to grant particular religious accommodations, the Establishment Clause restricts the nature and scope of such accommodations to some extent. While most accommodations are permissible, some accommodations are unconstitutional because they are not sufficiently even-handed and impermissibly favor one faith over others. 8 Other accommodations violate the Establishment Clause because they go too far and impose an unacceptable burden or risk on third parties. 9 It remains to be seen whether the Court will weaken its review of religious accommodations under the Establishment Clause to the same degree that it has retreated from establishment clause requirements restricting state financial subsidies to religious institutions and prohibiting the endorsement of religion through state sponsored displays. While the Establishment Clause imposes some limits on the state s power to grant discretionary religious accommodations, freedom of speech and freedom of association doctrine can serve as an alternative foundation for asserting that the Constitution requires accommodations to protect the exercise of religion. In a significant line of cases, the Court has bypassed the Free Exercise Clause and struck down government regulations denying religious groups access to public 6 See, e.g., The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, 42U.S.C. 2000bb et seq. Several states have also adopted laws modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but they have had limited utility. See Christopher C. Lund, Religious Liberty After Gonzales: A Look At State RFRAS, 55 S.D. L. REV. 466 (2010). 7 See, e.g., Section 702 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. 2000e-1 (exempting religious organizations from Title VI s prohibition against religious discrimination in hiring). 8 See, e.g., Larson v. Valente, 456 U.S. 228 (1982); Board of Education, Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687 (1994). 9 Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, Inc., 472 U.S. 703 (1985) (striking down statute providing absolute and unqualified accommodation of Sabbath observers because it unconstitutionally favors and advances religion); Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U.S. 709, (2005) (upholding broad accommodation requirement with the understanding that it will be applied neutrally among faiths and will not impose unreasonable burdens on nonbeneficiaries).

184 174 Peaceful Coexistence Report property for expressive religious activities when secular groups were provided access to the same facilities for non-religious activities. 10 In the most recent of these cases, the Supreme Court concluded that these exclusions of expressive religious activities constituted impermissible viewpoint discrimination in clear violation of accepted free speech doctrine. This viewpoint discrimination contention has been raised by religious groups to challenge the application of anti-discrimination policies to their membership decisions and their selection of officers. Most notably, plaintiffs in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez 11 argued unsuccessfully that the Hastings College of Law s anti-discrimination policy constituted prohibited viewpoint discrimination. Justice Alito and the other dissenting Justices in Martinez, however, were persuaded that a state college policy prohibiting student clubs from discriminating on the basis of religion, while not prohibiting student clubs from discriminating on the basis of political or secular beliefs, was viewpoint discriminatory because it interfered with the associational freedom of religious organizations, but not their secular counterparts. 12 As I have argued in prior work, Justice Alito s viewpoint discrimination argument in his dissent in Martinez is mistaken on the merits and inconsistent with accepted free speech principles. 13 The more important problem with the Martinez dissent, however, is that it helps to demonstrate how the Court s willingness to construe religious beliefs and expressive activities to be speech, rather than the exercise of religion - protected under freedom of speech, rather than free exercise, doctrine - may severely undercut the legitimacy of laws accommodating religious liberty or shielding it from state interference. Understood as a liberty right, the exercise of religion may receive distinctive protection and accommodations that need not be provided to secular activities or institutions. Such religionspecific accommodations are rarely constitutionally mandated after the Smith decision, but discretionary, political determined religious accommodations are often constitutionally permissible for religion clause purposes. Put simply, the religion clauses do not prohibit the distinctive treatment of religion by the state. If anything, they acknowledge the propriety of distinctive treatment in limiting the state s ability to interfere with or promote religion. Free speech doctrine is entirely different. If religious expressive activities are conceptualized as speech, indeed, as expressing a viewpoint of speech, the First Amendment s free speech clause requirements prohibit government from treating these religious activities any differently than 10 See, e.g., Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981); Lamb's Chapel v. Ctr. Moriches Union Free Sch. Dist., 508 U.S. 384 (1993); Good News Club v. Milford Cent. Sch., 533 U.S. 98 (2001). 11 Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 130 S.Ct (2010). 12 Id. at Alan Brownstein and Vikram Amar, Reviewing Association Freedom Claims in a Limited Public Forum: An Extension of the Distinction Between Debate-Dampening and Debate-Distorting State Action, 38 HASTINGS CONST. L. Q. 505 (2011).

185 Panelists Written Statements 175 non-religious expressive activities. The Free Speech Clause is a harsh mistress, particularly with regard to its prohibition against viewpoint discrimination. The same doctrinal principle that prohibits government from discriminating against religion operates with equal force to prohibit government from discriminating in favor of religion. The implications of this reasoning are far reaching. If religious beliefs and expressive activities are conceptualized as speech, in the way that Justice Alito s analysis suggests, various accommodations of religion might be subject to constitutional challenge on the grounds that they impermissibly favor religious viewpoints and messages. One example, arising out the Martinez case, should be sufficient to illustrate the risks created by an overly ambitious willingness to construe religion as speech. Conventional civil rights laws (and the original written policy at the Hastings College of Law) prohibit discrimination based on a variety of individual characteristics: race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability etc. Such laws rarely prohibit discrimination on the basis of political affiliation or belief. From a liberty or equality perspective, these laws are unexceptional. The exercise of religion is a distinctively recognized liberty interest. A person s religious status is a core aspect of their identity that too often has been the focus of prejudice and irrational discrimination. For religion clause purposes, there is nothing problematic about prohibiting discrimination based on religion, while not prohibiting discrimination based on political affiliation or belief. If we conceptualize religion as a viewpoint of speech and examine the same laws under free speech doctrine, a very different analysis applies. Now we are reviewing a law that provides far greater protection against discrimination to individuals who hold and espouse religious beliefs than it provides to individuals who hold and espouse political or secular beliefs. For free speech purposes, why shouldn t these civil rights laws be vulnerable to challenge on the grounds that they unconstitutionally favor religious viewpoints? The Court s continued willingness to construe religion as speech, without providing any demarcation lines that suggest when one constitutional framework or another is appropriate in particular circumstances, makes it more and more difficult to answer questions like this one. Finally, even if constitutional law does not directly constrain government decisions related to religious liberty, the Court s decisions may indirectly influence whether discretionary religious accommodations will be granted by the legislature or government administrators. Discretionary political accommodations of religious practice and belief are predicated on the principle that there is something distinctive about religion that justifies exempting religious individuals and institutions from laws that their secular counterparts must obey. Accordingly, constitutional arguments that cast doubt on the idea that religion is distinctive by suggesting that religious and non-religious individuals or institutions are similarly situated and should be treated the same way by government erode the conceptual foundation on which religious accommodations are based. The reasoning of recent Supreme Court decisions adjudicating establishment clause and free

186 176 Peaceful Coexistence Report speech cases communicate just this message, and in doing so, they substantially undermine the basic idea that religion is different in a way that justifies special legal attention and treatment. Recent establishment clause cases permitting government to fund religious institutions through grants or vouchers suggest that there is nothing about these institutions that warrants treating them differently for funding purposes than non-religious institutions. As long as the funding criteria being used to award subsidies is neutral, the religious nature of the entities seeking state subsidies can be ignored. 14 This neutrality model, however beneficial it may be to religious institutions in financial terms in some circumstances, recognizes religious communities as just another interest group seeking state support for their activities. If religious institutions can demand and receive an equal right to seek the same support from the government as their competitors, they will be far less persuasive in demanding exemptions from general regulations that other organizations must obey. The reasoning underlying recent free speech cases, discussed above, is even more problematic for claims for discretionary religious accommodations. When religious practice and activities are understood to express particular viewpoints in public discourse and debate, providing distinctive protection to religious activities and institutions seems inconsistent with a core understanding of freedom of speech - the rule that government cannot favor one viewpoint or message over another. Accommodations that may seem justifiable if they are perceived as shielding the exercise of a liberty right, religious freedom, from state interference may seem far less deserving of support if they are perceived to be privileging religious messages in the marketplace of ideas. Reconciling Religious Liberty and the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry If conflicts between religious liberty and non-discrimination policies are going to be resolved politically, rather than through constitutional adjudication, how are we as a society to approach and evaluate these disputes? Is there any basis for seeking some principled resolution of these controversies, or will all these issues be decided solely as matter of political power - with the larger or stronger constituency in a jurisdiction controlling the result without regard to the value or interests on the losing side? I have been struggling with this issue for several years in the specific context of the conflict between religious liberty and policies protecting same-sex married couples against discrimination. I don t know that I can claim to bring an entirely evenhanded perspective to this dispute. I can say that I am unequivocally committed to the moral necessity of states recognizing same-sex marriages, and that I have spent the last twenty five years of my professional life writing about, and advocating for, the rigorous protection of religious freedom. 14 See Mitchell v. Helms and Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, supra note 2.

187 Panelists Written Statements 177 Not all religions oppose same-sex marriages and there is disagreement within many denominations about both the religious and the legal status of same-sex unions. Religious individuals and institutions that oppose same-sex marriages fear that if such relationships are legalized they will be required by anti-discrimination laws or other government policies to affirm or support as valid marriages that violate the requirements of their faith. Some disputes have already occurred and more are predicted. 15 Religious objectors and their proponents may seek exemptions from laws or duties that require them to facilitate or validate same-sex marriages by issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple, providing catering, photography, floral arrangements or other services to a same-sex couple s wedding, or renting an apartment or hotel room to a gay or lesbian couple. Other claims may involve religious adoption agencies refusing to place children with same-sex couples or religious employers refusing to extend spousal benefits to a same-sex spouse. In public discourse the arguments on both sides of this debate are sometime harsh and uncompromising. To some opponents of same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples are trying to force religiously observant individuals and religious institutions to accept as normal and moral what they perceive to be the unnatural and sinful behavior of homosexual unions. Similarly, some opponents of religious accommodations view religious individuals and institutions seeking exemptions from civil rights laws as unrelenting bigots determined to undermine the equal treatment of gays and lesbians in our society in any way that they can. In addressing this conflict, I start with a basic normative and political principle. 16 If we are going to achieve some form of reconciliation between the constituencies supporting these competing claims, some form of political compromise, people on both sides of these issues need to recognize that one of the best ways to protect one s own liberty and autonomy rights is to recognize the liberty and autonomy of others. The application of this principle to the current debate about religious liberty and same-sex marriage presupposes that religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples to marry are autonomy rights that are worthy of respect. Here, I suggest that the right of same-sex couples to marry and religious liberty rights share a common foundation as important personal autonomy rights. Indeed, counter intuitive as it may seem, at some basic level, these rights can be understood to mutually reinforce each other. Thus, strengthening our cultural and legal commitment to personal autonomy supports both religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples to marry. 15 See generally SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: EMERGING CONFLICTS, (Douglas Laycock. Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., & Robin Fretwell Wilson, eds. 2008); Ira CV. Lupu and Robert W. Tuttle, Same-Sex Equality and Religious Freedom, 5 NW. J. L. & SOC. POL Y 274 (2010). 16 This section of my statement is based on a previously published article, Alan Brownstein, Gays, Jews, and Other Strangers in a Strange Land: The Case for Reciprocal Accommodation of Religious Liberty and the Right of Same- Sex Couples to Marry, 45 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO LAW REVIEW 389 (2010).

188 178 Peaceful Coexistence Report Equality and autonomy rights grounded in sexual orientation and equality and liberty rights grounded in religious identity parallel each other in important respects. For example, for many devoutly religious persons, religion is a core aspect of their identity. It is a fixed part of who they are. Similarly, sexual orientation is a fixed part and core aspect of a gay or lesbian person s identity. Just as it is unrealistic, unfair, and useless to insist as a matter of social policy that gays and lesbians should just stop being gay, it is equally unacceptable to insist that devoutly religious persons should just stop obeying the dictates of their faith. Also, religion and sexual orientation have a merged identity and conduct dimension to them. It makes no sense to tell devout Catholics that they are protected as to their religious identity, but they are prohibited from practicing Catholicism. It is similarly senseless to protect the identity of gays and lesbians, while prohibiting their right to sexual intimacy. Neither gays nor lesbians nor devoutly religious individuals can reasonably be required to change who they are - or to separate their conduct from their identity. Religion is no more an easily discarded so-called lifestyle than is an orientation toward sexual intimacy and association. Moreover, both religious belief and affiliation and same-sex marital relationships are the source of duties and responsibilities. They are both intended to express the seriousness of mutual commitments. Religious people want to have the liberty to fulfill the responsibilities that arise out of their relationship with G-d. Same-sex couples want to marry in order to express their commitment to the person with whom they want to share their lives - and to fulfill the responsibilities that arise out of this relationship. Perhaps most importantly, the essence of religious liberty is the right to be different and to be wrong in the eyes of others. Members of many faiths believe that adherents of other religions or non-believers are deeply and seriously in error in their beliefs. A commitment to religious liberty tempers the conflict among religions by allowing the adherents of different faiths to follow their own path -- even if other religions believe it is the wrong road and takes them away from G-d. A similar analysis applies to the conflict between some religious adherents and same-sex marital couples. Protecting the liberty interests of both groups requires the mutual recognition of the right to be wrong in the other group s eyes. Ultimately, respect for personal autonomy rights has to be a two way street. It cannot be restricted solely to those who exercise their liberty and autonomy in approved ways. There is no gold standard that defines the scope of fundamental rights by only protecting what the majority deems to be the best religions or the best kinds of sexual intimacy. If we believe that we should limit the state s authority to interfere with core autonomy interests, then those limitations should apply equally when we are in the majority and can use state power to impose our beliefs on others, and when we are a minority and fear having the majority s beliefs imposed on us. A

189 Panelists Written Statements 179 meaningful commitment to core autonomy rights would protect both religious liberty and the right of gays and lesbians to marry the person with whom they choose to share their lives. Agreeing that two autonomy rights, religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples to marry, both deserve respect doesn t tell us how we should reconcile these rights when they are in conflict with each other. Here, I suggest that existing models of religious accommodation provide some useful guidance. We have a long history in the United States of resolving conflicts between religious liberty and public policy requirements through carefully crafted exemptions and accommodations. Recognizing the objections of religious pacifists to conscription may be one of the oldest examples of such accommodations, but it is only one example of many. The adoption of civil rights laws and the protection of various autonomy rights have often created problems for some religious individuals and institutions and in appropriate circumstances, religious accommodations have been created to respond to these concerns. Some understanding of how prior conflicts between civil rights laws (and other government policies) and religious liberty have been resolved has to be part of the analysis. There is nothing about same-sex marriages that suggests that they represent some kind of a unique, outlier problem because of their impact on religious liberty. Once cannot simply presume that claims for religious exemptions from civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, gender, national origin, religion, age, or disability that would be rejected in the past must be accepted now when the prohibited discrimination is based on sexual orientation. Two models, based on existing frameworks, have been offered as a basis for determining when accommodations for religious objectors to same-sex marriage should be granted. One model analogizes discrimination against same-sex marital couples to racial discrimination. Under this approach, few, if any accommodations would ever be granted. I reject this analogy because racism has played such a uniquely invidious role in American history. The goal of purging racial discrimination from our society has no equal and no counterpart. Another model analogizes accommodations for religious objectors to same-sex marriage to conscience clauses for health care providers who refuse to perform abortions. I reject this analogy as well. Narrow and limited accommodations focused on a specific set of health care procedures have little relevance to religious objections to on-going relationships that may endure for decades. I suggest that a better model for evaluating proposed exemptions from civil rights laws protecting same-sex married couples from discrimination would be based on accommodations that permit discrimination on the basis of religion. That is, a starting point for our inquiry would be to determine when we would free religious institutions or individuals from any civil rights obligation to employ, or provide goods and services to, people of other faiths without discrimination based on their religious belief, identity, or practices.

190 180 Peaceful Coexistence Report This model is supported by the parallels between religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples to marry described above. It also reinforces two important ideas that may be essential to meaningfully reconciling these conflicting claims. First, just as we recognize in evaluating proposed accommodations of religiously based religious discrimination that there is something of serious value on each side of the scale, a comparable balance between important values applies when we evaluate proposed accommodations of religiously-based discrimination against same-sex married couples. Second, by providing limited accommodations for discrimination based on religion, we acknowledge that protecting the religious liberty of the diverse faiths in our society requires some mutual recognition of the right to be wrong in the eyes of others. Both the religious group engaging in discrimination and the religious individuals subject to such discrimination may view the other faith s beliefs and conduct as sinful or immoral. Limited accommodations require that both groups provide the other some freedom to act wrongly free from state interference or private discrimination. A similar analysis applies if we analogize the accommodation of religious objectors to same-sex marriage to the accommodation of religiously based religious discrimination. Both groups would be asked to recognize the right to act wrongly in the eyes of the other. The model I propose provides a way to think about the problem of reconciling religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples to marry and be free from discrimination. It is not intended to serve as a blueprint for specific legislative accommodations. It requires that legislatures ask when they consider specific accommodations whether they would be willing to support the exemption from civil rights laws if it accommodated discrimination against Jews or Moslems or Mormons as well as same-sex couples. Religious exemptions would apply to discrimination based on religion as well as sexual orientation, not just to discrimination based on sexual orientation. Still, it is possible to suggest some ways in which the model could be applied. Turning to existing law for guidance, the model would protect non-profit religious institutions far more than it would protect commercial businesses. Title VII s exemption of non-profit religious organizations from the statute s prohibition against religious discrimination in hiring 17 would apply to discrimination in the hiring of married gays and lesbians and, arguably, to the denial of spousal benefits to the non-employee spouse of a same-sex couple. The autonomy of non-profit religious institutions in other circumstances, however, would have to be subordinated to the needs of gay and lesbian families. I cannot imagine a religious hospital being allowed to deny the legal prerogatives due the spouse of a patient because the hospital objected to an inter-faith 17 See Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327 (1987) (upholding constitutionality of Section 702 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. 2000e-1, which exempts religious organizations from Title VI s prohibition against religious discrimination in hiring, in the context of nonprofit activities).

191 Panelists Written Statements 181 marriage or to the marriage of previously divorced individuals. Accordingly, religious hospitals would be required to acknowledge the rights due the same-sex spouse of a patient in their care. In some cases, the application of this model to accommodations for religious objectors to samesex marriage will be obvious. There will also be grey areas and hard cases. The model provides a framework for beginning a discussion about the reconciliation of conflicting rights. It is not presented as the complete answer to all the issues that may arise in the numerous circumstances in which religious liberty claims relating to same-sex marriage may be asserted. Kimberlee Wood Colby I am Kim Colby, Senior Counsel at Christian Legal Society s Center for Law and Religious Freedom where I have worked for over 30 years to protect religious students rights to meet for religious speech on college campuses. Christian Legal Society ( CLS ) has long believed that pluralism, essential to a free society, prospers only when the First Amendment rights of all Americans are protected regardless of the current popularity of their speech. For that reason, CLS was instrumental in passage of the Equal Access Act of that protects the right of students to meet for religious, political, philosophical or other speech on public secondary school campuses. 19 The Act has protected both religious and homosexual student groups seeking to meet for disfavored speech. 20 CLS is an association of Christian attorneys, law students, and law professors, with student chapters at approximately 90 public and private law schools. CLS law student chapters typically are small groups of students who meet for weekly prayer, Bible study, and worship at a time and place convenient to the students. All students are welcome at CLS meetings. As Christian groups have done for nearly two millennia, CLS requires its leaders to agree with a statement of faith, signifying agreement with the traditional Christian beliefs that define CLS. Beginning in 1993, CLS student chapters, like other religious student groups, began to encounter some university administrators misuse of nondiscrimination policies to exclude U.S.C (2013). 19 See 128 Cong. Rec (1982) (Sen. Hatfield statement). 20 See, e.g., Bd. of Educ. v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990) (requiring access for religious student group); Straights and Gays for Equality v. Osseo Area School No. 279, 540 F.3d 911 (8th Cir. 2008) (requiring access for homosexual student group).

192 182 Peaceful Coexistence Report religious student groups from campus, simply because they require their leaders to agree with their religious beliefs. 21 This expanded written statement examines the supposed conflict between university nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty that occurs when some college administrators misinterpret nondiscrimination policies to treat religious groups use of religious leadership criteria as religious discrimination. But it is common sense and basic religious liberty - not discrimination -- for religious groups to expect their leaders to share their religious beliefs. Nondiscrimination policies serve valuable purposes. But nondiscrimination policies are intended to protect religious students on campus, not punish them for being religious. When universities misuse nondiscrimination policies to exclude religious student groups, they actually undermine nondiscrimination policies purposes and the good they serve. If used with appropriate sensitivity, nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty are eminently compatible, as shown by many universities model policies that create a sustainable environment in which nondiscrimination principles and religious liberty can harmoniously thrive. 22 Part II explores the need for a reflective understanding of discrimination that is sensitive to both religious liberty and nondiscrimination principles. Examining the intersection of religious freedom and nondiscrimination norms, a leading constitutional scholar explains: When we say that discrimination is wrong, what we actually mean is that wrongful discrimination is wrong, and when we affirm that governments should oppose it we mean 21 See Michael Stokes Paulsen, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Limited Public Forum: Unconstitutional Conditions on Equal Access for Religious Speakers and Groups, 29 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 653, (1996) (detailing University of Minnesota s threat to derecognize CLS chapter); Stephen M. Bainbridge, Student Religious Organizations and University Policies Against Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation: Implications of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 21 J.C. & U.L. 369 (1994) (detailing University of Illinois threat to derecognize CLS chapter). 22 See Attachment C. The University of Florida s nondiscrimination policy is an excellent model for striking the appropriate balance between nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty: A student organization whose primary purpose is religious will not be denied registration as a Registered Student Organization on the ground that it limits membership or leadership positions to students who share the religious beliefs of the organization. The University has determined that this accommodation of religious belief does not violate its nondiscrimination policy. University of Florida Student Organization Registration Policy Update, at 12, available at 20Handbook% pdf (last visited March 8, 2013). See also, University of Texas, New Student Organization Application, available at (last visited March 8, 2013); University of Houston, Organizations Policies, 2.4 (a) (3), available at (last visited March 8, 2013); University of Minnesota Constitution and By-Laws Instructions in Student Groups Official Handbook, available at (last visited March 8, 2013).

193 Panelists Written Statements 183 that governments should oppose it when it makes sense, all things considered, and when it is within their constitutionally and morally limited powers, to do so. 23 Caution needs to be taken before affixing the stigmatizing label of wrongful discrimination to religious groups exercise of a fundamental religious liberty. Reflecting an appropriate sensitivity to religious liberty, most nondiscrimination laws, including Title VII, simultaneously prohibit discrimination while protecting religious groups ability to maintain their religious identities. Part III analyzes the Supreme Court s decision in Christian Legal Society Chapter of University of California, Hastings College of the Law v. Martinez, 24 a narrow decision that is easily misunderstood. In Martinez, the Court explicitly did not decide whether nondiscrimination policies could be used to penalize the religious students that they are supposed to protect. Instead, the Court narrowly, and conspicuously, confined its decision to an unusual allcomers policy, unique to one law school, that required all student groups to allow any student to be a member and leader of the group, regardless of whether the student agreed with or actively opposed the values, beliefs, or speech of the group. 25 Moreover, the Court held it was not enough for a university to adopt an all-comers policy : the policy must actually be uniformly applied to all student groups. 26 As Part IV explains, all-comers policies are rare because, as the Martinez decision requires, they must be applied without exception to all student groups. As a practical matter, an allcomers policy is completely unworkable because of its inherent incompatibility with the sororities and fraternities, a cappella groups, and club sports teams found on most campuses. Besides ending selection of members and leaders on the basis of sex, an all-comers policy would seem to require fraternities and sororities to adopt a first-come, first-pledge selection process to ensure their openness to all students. A healthy balance between nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty is absolutely necessary and easily attainable. The conflict is entirely avoidable if university administrators exercise tolerance, common sense, and sensitivity to religious student groups and their basic religious liberty to be led by persons who share their religious beliefs. 23 Richard W. Garnett, Religious Freedom and the Nondiscrimination Norm, ch. 4 in Austin Surat, ed., Legal Responses to Religious Practices in the United States 194, 198 (Cambridge University Press, 2012). A summary of Professor Garnett s article is found at Richard W. Garnett, Confusion about Discrimination, The Public Discourse, Apr. 5, 2012, available at (last visited March 8, 2013) S.Ct (2010). 25 Id. at 2982, 2984; id. at 2999 (Kennedy, J., concurring). 26 Id. at

194 184 Peaceful Coexistence Report Misuse of Nondiscrimination Policies to Exclude Religious Student Groups from Campus Violates The Students Basic Religious Liberty and Is Instead Religious Discrimination by the Universities. Nondiscrimination policies serve valuable purposes. But nondiscrimination policies are intended to protect religious students on campus, not punish them for being religious. When universities misuse nondiscrimination policies to exclude religious student groups, they actually undermine nondiscrimination policies purposes and the good they serve. 27 In the process, they diminish diversity on campus. In the name of tolerance, college administrators institutionalize religious intolerance. In the name of inclusion, college administrators exclude religious student groups from campus. 28 This misuse of nondiscrimination policies is unnecessary. Many leading universities have policies that protect religious groups religious leadership criteria. The University of Florida s nondiscrimination policy is an excellent model for striking the appropriate balance between nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty. Protection for religious student groups is embedded in the nondiscrimination policy: A student organization whose primary purpose is religious will not be denied registration as a Registered Student Organization on the ground that it limits membership or leadership positions to students who share the religious beliefs of the organization. The University has determined that this accommodation of religious belief does not violate its nondiscrimination policy. 29 Similarly, the University of Texas provides: [A]n organization created primarily for religious purposes may restrict the right to vote or hold office to persons who subscribe to the organization s statement of faith. 30 The University of Houston likewise provides: Religious student organizations may limit officers to those members who subscribe to the religious tenets of the organization 27 As Dean Joan Howarth of the Michigan State University College of Law has explained, the application of the nondiscrimination policy against faith-based groups undermines the very purpose of the nondiscrimination policy: protecting religious freedom. Joan Howarth, Teaching Freedom: Exclusionary Rights of Student Groups, 42 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 889, 915 (2009). 28 This happened quite literally at Tufts University when a group calling itself the Coalition Against Religious Exclusion failed to see the irony in its efforts to exclude a religious student group from campus because of the group s traditional religious beliefs. After the religious student group was derecognized for several months, its recognition was restored under a new policy that allows religious groups to have religious leadership criteria. Tufts University, Undergraduate Education, Student Affairs, & Student Services, Decision of the Tufts University Committee on Student Life on Recognition of Student Religious Groups, Dec. 5, 2012, available at /SRGrecognition.asp (last visited March 8, 2013). 29 University of Florida Student Organization Registration Policy Update, p. 12 available at 20Handbook% pdf (last visited March 8, 2013). 30 University of Texas New Student Organization Application, available at (last visited March 8, 2013).

195 Panelists Written Statements 185 where the organization s activities center on a set of core beliefs. 31 The University of Minnesota provides: Religious student groups may require their voting members and officers to adhere to the organization s statement of faith and its rules of conduct. 32 By demonstrating that nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty are eminently compatible, such model policies create university environments in which nondiscrimination principles and religious liberty harmoniously thrive. The treatment of religious students is important not only for the students threatened with exclusion, and not only to preserve a diversity of ideas on college campuses, but also because the lessons taught on college campuses about the First Amendment spill over into our broader civil society. 33 Those who insist that we must choose between religious liberty and nondiscrimination policies in reality are demanding a zero-sum game in which religious liberty, nondiscrimination principles, and pluralism ultimately all lose. Religious student organizations enhance campus diversity in myriad ways by contributing to the religious, philosophical, cultural, social, and ethnic marketplace of ideas on campus. But this diversity is threatened when university administrators ban religious student organizations from campus because they exercise the basic religious liberty to require their leaders to agree with their religious beliefs. For the past forty years, some college administrators have tried to exclude religious student groups from campus. 34 From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, the Establishment Clause was the justification given for excluding religious student groups. Administrators claimed that the Establishment Clause would be violated if they allowed religious groups to meet in empty classrooms on campus. But in 1981, 35 and again in 1995, 36 the Supreme Court ruled that 31 University of Houston Organizations Policies, 2.4 (a) (3), available at (last visited March 8, 2013). 32 University of Minnesota Constitution and By-Laws Instructions in Student Groups Official Handbook, available at (last visited March 8, 2013). 33 For example, a federal appellate judge opined that New York City might consider denying a church access to public school auditoriums on weekends, to which other community groups had access, because its meetings might not be open to the general public if the church reserved communion to baptized persons. Bronx Household v. Bd. of Education, 492 F.3d 89, 120 (2d Cir. 2007) (Leval, J., concurring). 34 The technical term for excluding student groups from campus is to deny them recognition. To be an official student group on campus, the group must register or be recognized by the administration as an official student group. Recognition as a student group allows a student group to reserve meeting space for meetings and activities, publicize meetings through campus channels of communication, attract new members through the organizational fair in the fall, and apply for funding to bring speakers to campus. Practically speaking, without recognition, a student organization cannot exist on campus. Large universities have several hundred student groups. The Ohio State University, for example, has over 1000 recognized student organizations. See (last visited March 8, 2013). 35 Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981) (religious student groups have free speech and free association rights to meet on public university campus, and such meetings do not violate the Establishment Clause).

196 186 Peaceful Coexistence Report the Establishment Clause was not violated by religious groups meeting on campus. Instead, the Court held that the freedoms of speech and association protected religious groups right to meet on campus. Universities nondiscrimination policies then became a new justification for excluding religious student groups from campus. Asserting it was religious discrimination, some administrators told religious groups they could not require their leaders to agree with their religious beliefs. 37 But it is common sense - not discrimination - for religious groups to choose leaders who agree with their religious beliefs. It is religious liberty - not discrimination - that protects religious groups ability to choose leaders who agree with their religious beliefs. The leadership of any organization affects its ability to carry out its mission. Particularly true for religious groups, leaders conduct the Bible studies, guide the prayers, and facilitate the worship at religious groups meetings. To expect the person conducting the Bible study to believe that the Bible reflects truth seems obvious. To expect the person leading prayer to believe in the God to whom she is praying seems reasonable. Both are a far cry from wrongful discrimination. Yet some university administrators woodenly characterize these common sense expectations as religious discrimination. For example, last year, Vanderbilt University denied recognition to a Christian Legal Society student chapter because the students expected their leaders to lead Bible study, prayer, and worship, and to affirm that they agreed with the group s core religious beliefs. 38 Vanderbilt University demanded that another Christian group delete five words from its leadership requirements if it wanted to remain on campus: personal commitment to Jesus Christ. 39 In the end, Vanderbilt University forced fourteen Catholic and evangelical Christian student groups from campus. 40 While Vanderbilt refused to allow 36 Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995) (religious student group s freedom of speech was violated when the university denied it access to student activity fee funding for the printing costs of its evangelical magazine, and the Establishment Clause would not be violated by the University paying $5,862 toward those printing costs). 37 See Michael Stokes Paulsen, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Limited Public Forum: Unconstitutional Conditions on Equal Access for Religious Speakers and Groups, 29 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 653, (1996) (detailing University of Minnesota s threat to derecognize CLS chapter); Stephen M. Bainbridge, Student Religious Organizations and University Policies Against Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation: Implications of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 21 J.C. & U.L. 369 (1994) (detailing University of Illinois threat to derecognize CLS chapter). 38 See Attachment A (also available at (last visited March 8, 2013)). 39 See Attachment B (also available at (last visited March 8, 2013)). 40 The excluded groups are: Asian-American Christian Fellowship; Baptist Campus Ministry; Beta Upsilon Chi; Bridges International; Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU); Christian Legal Society; Fellowship of Christian Athletes; Graduate Christian Fellowship; Lutheran Student Fellowship; Medical Christian Fellowship; Midnight Worship; The Navigators; St. Thomas More Society; and Vanderbilt + Catholic.

197 Panelists Written Statements 187 religious groups to have religious leadership requirements, it specifically announced that fraternities and sororities could continue to engage in sex discrimination in their selection of both leaders and members. 41 Religious groups ability to choose their leaders is the most basic of religious liberties. Last year, the Supreme Court unanimously protected the right of religious institutions to choose their leaders despite the federal government s claim that their decisions violated federal nondiscrimination laws. In Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 42 the Court rejected the government s argument that nondiscrimination laws could be used to second-guess religious associations leadership decisions. The Supreme Court acknowledged that nondiscrimination laws are undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. 43 Religious leaders personify a religious group s beliefs and shape its own faith and mission. 44 In their concurrence, Justice Alito and Justice Kagan stressed that [r]eligious groups are the archetype of associations formed for expressive purposes, and their fundamental rights surely include the freedom to choose who is qualified to serve as a voice for their faith. 45 These same considerations are true for student religious groups when they choose the leaders who will speak on their behalf to the campus community and lead the Bible study, prayer, and worship at their meetings. In perhaps the most cogent legal analysis of the reason nondiscrimination policies, when misused, impose a particular burden on religious student groups, Seventh Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple has explained: Under this [nondiscrimination] policy, most clubs can limit their membership to those who share a common purpose or view: Vegan students, who believe that the institution is not accommodating adequately their dietary preferences, may form a student group restricted to vegans and, under the policy, gain official recognition. Clubs whose memberships are defined by issues involving protected categories, however, are required to welcome into their ranks 41 Colleges frequently invoke Title IX s exemption for fraternities and sororities to justify their unequal treatment of religious groups compared to Greek groups. But that response is a red herring. Title IX gives fraternities and sororities an exemption only from Title IX itself, which prohibits sex discrimination in higher education. It does not give fraternities and sororities a blanket exemption from all nondiscrimination laws or policies, including a university s own nondiscrimination policy or an all-comers policy. If a university exempts fraternities and sororities from their nondiscrimination policies, they must also exempt religious groups. See Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 130 S.Ct. 2971, 2993, 2995 (2010); cf., Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, (1993) S.Ct. 694 (2012). 43 Id. at Id. at Id. at 713 (Alito, J., concurring).

198 188 Peaceful Coexistence Report and leadership those who do not share the group's perspective: Homosexual students, who have suffered discrimination or ostracism, may not both limit their membership to homosexuals and enjoy the benefits of official recognition. The policy dilutes the ability of students who fall into protected categories to band together for mutual support and discourse. For many groups, the intrusive burden established by this requirement can be assuaged partially by defining the group or membership to include those who, although they do not share the dominant, immutable characteristic, otherwise sympathize with the group's views. Most groups dedicated to forwarding the rights of a protected group are able to couch their membership requirements in terms of shared beliefs, as opposed to shared status. Religious students, however, do not have this luxury their shared beliefs coincide with their shared status. They cannot otherwise define themselves and not run afoul of the nondiscrimination policy... The Catholic Newman Center cannot restrict its leadership those who organize and lead weekly worship services to members in good standing of the Catholic Church without violating the policy. Groups whose main purpose is to engage in the exercise of religious freedoms do not possess the same means of accommodating the heavy hand of the State. The net result of this selective policy is therefore to marginalize in the life of the institution those activities, practices and discourses that are religiously based. While those who espouse other causes may control their membership and come together for mutual support, others, including those exercising one of our most fundamental liberties the right to free exercise of one's religion cannot, at least on equal terms. Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 648 F.3d 790, (9 th Cir. 2011) (Ripple, J., concurring) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 132 S.Ct (2012). By insisting that religious groups abandon their religious belief requirements for their leaders, university administrators effectively demand that religious groups recant their basic religious beliefs. No starker illustration can be found than Vanderbilt University telling a Christian group that it could remain a recognized student group only if it deleted personal commitment to Jesus Christ from its constitution. 46 This is something that many faithful Christian groups will not do. It is not that they are unable to recant - deleting a few words is not that difficult. It is that Christians view recanting religious beliefs as the equivalent of overtly denying God. Over the past two millennia, millions of Christians have suffered great hardship rather than recant their faith. In comparison, forfeiting access to campus may seem a small thing. But it 46 See Attachment B, (also available at (last visited March 8, 2013).

199 Panelists Written Statements 189 is still fundamentally wrong for university authorities to demand that religious students choose between recanting their religious beliefs and remaining on campus. Of course, when university administrators are also government officials, as are public university administrators, then the government itself is making the demand. If the First Amendment does not protect in this situation, what is left of religious liberty? Public school students faced an analogous situation when they were expelled during World War II for refusing to salute the flag because they believed they would thereby violate the Second Commandment. 47 In ruling for the students, the Supreme Court s words seem particularly apt to a discussion of the protection of both religious liberty and nondiscrimination values: [F]reedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us. 48 Religious liberty must be reinforced on university campuses. The right to religious freedom must not be redefined to mean the right to recant. Religious freedom must remain the right to hold traditional religious beliefs without fear of expulsion from the public square. When Religious Groups Require Their Leaders to Share Their Religious Beliefs, They Are Exercising Their Religious Liberty, Not Discriminating. A. The label of discrimination, or the Scarlet D, must be affixed carefully. To our society s credit, affixing the label of discrimination to an action immediately casts that action as bad and intolerable. For that reason, the push to recast as discrimination religious groups right to have religious leadership requirements must be carefully weighed (and ultimately rejected) if religious liberty and pluralism are to survive in our society. It is tempting and common, but potentially misleading and distracting, to attach the rhetorically and morally powerful label of discrimination to decisions, conduct, and views whose wrongfulness has not (yet) been established West Virginia Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 629 (1942). 48 Id. at Richard W. Garnett, Religious Freedom and the Nondiscrimination Norm, ch. 4 in Austin Surat, ed., Legal Responses to Religious Practices in the United States 194, 197 (Cambridge University Press, 2012). A summary of Professor Garnett s article is found at Richard W. Garnett, Confusion about Discrimination, The Public Discourse, Apr. 5, 2012, available at

200 190 Peaceful Coexistence Report When school administrators impose a Scarlet D on religious groups for being openly religious, great damage is done to religious liberty and pluralism. But damage is also done to the equality and nondiscrimination principles that those applying the label claim to advance. A constitutional scholar recently explained that overenthusiastic or insufficiently deliberate campaigns against discrimination, in the name of equality, can conflict with or even undermine the fundamental and core idea of liberal, constitutional, and, therefore, limited government. 50 To force an unnecessary and false dichotomy between nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty is likely to diminish religious citizens support for nondiscrimination policies generally. Because it is possible to have strong nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty, the better approach is to facilitate both, rather than demand that religious liberty lose. Instructively, the Supreme Court itself decline[s] to construe federal laws in a manner that could in turn call upon the Court to resolve difficult and sensitive questions arising out of the guarantees of the First Amendment Religion Clauses. 51 College administrators would do well to follow the Supreme Court s example of restraint and interpret university policies, which are hardly on par with federal laws, to avoid difficult and sensitive questions arising out of the guarantees of the First Amendment Religion Clauses. This is particularly true when the common sense interpretation of nondiscrimination policies avoids the dilemma altogether. It is common sense, not religious discrimination, for religious groups to have religious leadership criteria. To begin, [i]t is not discrimination that is wrong; instead, it is wrongful discrimination that is wrong. 52 Discrimination, after all, is another word for discernment, and for choosing and acting in accord with or with reference to particular criteria. 53 To label something discrimination is not the end of the matter, but merely the beginning of the inquiry because: When we say that discrimination is wrong, what we actually mean is that wrongful discrimination is wrong, and when we affirm that governments should oppose it we mean that governments should oppose it when it makes sense, all things considered, and when it is within their constitutionally and morally limited powers, to do so. 54 The essential common sense of the matter renders it self-evident that the government should not infringe religious liberty by wrongly invoking the label of discrimination when religious 50 Garnett statement, supra n. 32 at NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 440 U.S. 490, 507 (1979). 52 Garnett statement, supra n. 32 at Id. 54 Garnett statement, supra n. 32 at 198.

201 Panelists Written Statements 191 groups confine their leadership to those who share their faith. 55 Religious groups need leaders who agree with the group s basic beliefs regarding the Bible, prayer, worship, mission, and message. Leaders exemplify the group s mission and articulate the group s message to the broader campus community. A religious group s leaders necessarily guide the group s distinctive religious practices, including worship, prayer, study of scripture, and service to others. Leaders are the group s primary voice, both internally to its members and externally to the University community. A committed leader can determine whether a group thrives or withers. For centuries, religious groups right to control the selection of their leaders has been crucial to securing religious liberty for all. The ultimate authority of religious organizations to select and supervise their leaders has been vital to the development of institutional religious freedom. 56 From the investiture controversy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in which popes and monarchs fought over who would have the authority to appoint Catholic bishops 57 to President Thomas Jefferson s letter to the Ursuline Sisters of New Orleans, assuring the religious order that the Louisiana Purchase would not undermine their legal rights, including the order s right to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules without interference from the civil authority, religious groups ability to be free to choose their leaders has been a basic component of religious liberty. 58 The Supreme Court s jurisprudence has long protected the ability of religious institutions to select their leaders according to their own religious criteria. 59 A year ago, the Supreme Court unanimously protected the right of religious institutions to choose their leaders despite the federal government s claim that their decisions violated federal nondiscrimination laws. In 55 Professor Garnett identifies several factors that should be considered in assessing whether action constitutes wrongful discrimination, including: Who is the decision maker? Who are the affected parties? What is the criterion for decision? How will the decision, and others like it, affect our ability to respect and vindicate other goods? How costly would it be to regulate or try to prohibit such decisions? Is the social meaning of the particular decision in question such that it belies the principle that people are of equal ultimate worth, or is it something else? And, is the decision one that a limited state in a free society has the authority to supervise? Garnett statement, supra n. 32 at 199 (quotation marks omitted). 56 Thomas C. Berg, Kimberlee Wood Colby, Carl H. Esbeck, Richard W. Garnett, Religious Freedom, Church-State Separation, and the Ministerial Exception, 106 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 175, 179 (2011). See id. at (detailing the dominant role played by church-state struggles over control of religious institutions leadership in the development of religious liberty in Europe and America). See Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S.Ct. 694, (2012) (tracing similar history). 57 Id. at Id. at (quoting Thomas Jefferson s letter, as quoted in 1 Anson Phelps Stokes, Church and State in the United States 478, 678 (1950)). 59 See, e.g., Serbian E. Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696 (1976); Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, 344 U.S. 94 (1952); Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, 280 U.S. 1 (1929).

202 192 Peaceful Coexistence Report Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 60 the Court rejected the government s argument that nondiscrimination laws may be used to second-guess religious institutions leadership decisions. Rejecting the government s untenable position that the Religion Clauses do not protect such decisions, the Court stressed that the text of the First Amendment itself... gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations and rejected the government s remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization s freedom to select its own ministers. 61 The Court agreed that religious leaders personify a religious group s beliefs and shape its own faith and mission. 62 In their concurrence, Justice Alito and Justice Kagan stressed that [r]eligious groups are the archetype of associations formed for expressive purposes, and their fundamental rights surely include the freedom to choose who is qualified to serve as a voice for their faith. 63 Because religious groups very existence is dedicated to the collective expression and propagation of shared religious ideals, [w]hen it comes to the expression and inculcation of religious doctrine, there can be no doubt that the messenger matters. 64 Obviously, [a] religion cannot depend on someone to be an effective advocate for its religious vision if that person s conduct fails to live up to the religious precepts that he or she espouses. 65 Most relevant to the subject of the briefing, the Supreme Court acknowledged that nondiscrimination laws are undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. 66 Concluding that the First Amendment has struck the balance, the Supreme Court ruled that [t]he church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way. 67 Likewise, in their concurrence, Justice Alito and Justice Kagan affirmed the importance of nondiscrimination laws, yet came down on the side of religious groups ability to choose their leaders without interference: [W]here the goal of the civil law in question, the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities, is so worthy - it is easy to forget that the autonomy of religious groups, both here in the United States and abroad, has often served as a shield against oppressive civil laws. To safeguard this crucial autonomy, we have long recognized that S.Ct. 694 (2012). 61 Id. at Id. 63 Id. at 706 & 713 (Alito, J., concurring). 64 Id. at (Alito, J., concurring). 65 Id. at 713 (Alito, J., concurring). 66 Id. at Id. at 710.

203 Panelists Written Statements 193 the Religion Clauses protect a private sphere within which religious bodies are free to govern themselves in accordance with their own beliefs. 68 Federal and state nondiscrimination laws typically protect religious organizations ability to choose their leadership on the basis of religious belief. Of course, no federal or state law, regulation, or court ruling requires a college to adopt a policy that prohibits religious groups from having religious criteria for their leaders and members. Instead, federal and state nondiscrimination laws typically protect religious organizations ability to choose their staff on the basis of their religious beliefs. Title VII explicitly provides that religious associations use of religious criteria in their employment decisions does not violate Title VII s prohibition on religious discrimination in employment. In three separate provisions, Title VII exempts religious associations from its general prohibition on religious discrimination in employment. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 2000e-1(a), Title VII does not apply to religious associations with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on of the associations activities. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(e) (2), an educational institution may employ employees of a particular religion if it is controlled by a religious association or if its curriculum is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(e) (1), any employer may hire on the basis of religion in those certain instances where religion... is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise. It is hard to imagine a better example of a bona fide occupational qualification than the requirement that the individual who leads a religious group s Bible study, worship, and prayer agree with the group s religious beliefs Id. at 712 (Alito, J., concurring). 69 Legislative proposals to expand Title VII to include sexual orientation are invariably accompanied by exemptions for religious groups with conflicting moral views. E.g., Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, H.R Every state law extending nondiscrimination protections to sexual orientation has some exemption for religious groups See Colo. Rev. Stat (3), (7), (1); Conn. Gen. Stat. 46a-81p; 19 Del. Code 710(6); D.C. Code (3); Haw. Rev. Stat b; 775 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/ (b), 25/3; Iowa Code 216.6(6)(d), 216.7(2)(a), 216.9(2), (1)(a); Mass. Gen. Laws 151B (1)(5), (4); 5 Me. Rev. Stat. 4553(10)(G), 4602; Md. Code, State Gov t (2); Minn. Stat. 363A.26(2); Nev. Rev. Stat ; N.H. Rev. Stat. 354-A:2(XIV-C); N.J. Stat. 10:5-5(n), 10:5-12(a); N.M. Stat (C); N.Y. Exec. Law 296(11); Or. Rev. Stat. 659A.006(3), (5); R.I. Gen. Laws (15), (16); 9 Vt. Stat. 4502(l), 21 Vt. Stat. 495(e); Wash Rev. Code (2), (11); Wis. Stat (2) (am).

204 194 Peaceful Coexistence Report In 1987, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Title VII s exemption against an Establishment Clause challenge. 70 Justice Brennan wrote a concurring opinion in which he explained why religious groups need such an exemption: We are willing to countenance the [religious group s] imposition of [a religious] condition because we deem it vital that, if certain activities constitute part of a religious community s practice, then a religious organization should be able to require that only members of its community perform those activities. 71 Justice Brennan insisted that religious organizations have an interest in autonomy in ordering their internal affairs, so that they may be free to select their own leaders, define their own doctrines, resolve their own disputes, and run their own institutions. 72 In Martinez, the Supreme Court Avoided Deciding the Issue of Nondiscrimination Policies. The Martinez decision is narrowly limited to a unique factual context of an all-comers policy, not a nondiscrimination policy. The holding and scope of the Supreme Court s narrow decision in Martinez is easily misunderstood. In Martinez, the Court explicitly did not decide whether an enumerated nondiscrimination policy could be used to penalize the religious students it is supposed to protect. 73 The Court narrowly, and conspicuously, confined its decision to an unusual policy, unique to Hastings College of the Law, that required all student groups to allow any student to be a member and leader of the group, regardless of whether the student agreed with or actively opposed the values, beliefs, or speech of the group. 74 Moreover, the Court held it was not 70 Corporation of the Presiding Bishop v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327 (1987). 71 Id. at (Brennan, J., concurring). 72 Id. at (quotation marks and punctuation omitted). 73 Commenting on Martinez, a senior vice president and general counsel for claims management at United Educators Insurance, who is a prominent adviser to colleges on issues related to legal risk, cautioned university counsel that they should not be lulled into thinking their policies on student groups are immune to legal challenges based on the U.S. Supreme Court s decision. According to The Chronicle for Higher Education: The ruling focused on a type of policy found at only a minority of colleges: an accept all comers policy requiring any student group seeking official recognition to be open to anyone who wishes to join. More common at colleges is a policy of allowing student groups to have requirements for membership and leadership as long as those requirements are not discriminatory. Peter Schmidt, Ruling Is Unlikely to End Litigation over Policies on Student Groups, Chron. Higher Educ. (June 30, 2010) available at (last visited March 8, 2013). 74 Christian Legal Society Chapter of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law v. Martinez, 130 S.Ct. 2971, 2982, 2984 (2010); id. at 2999 (Kennedy, J., concurring).

205 Panelists Written Statements 195 enough for a university to adopt an all-comers policy: the policy must actually be uniformly applied to all student groups. 75 The decision explicitly does not apply to conventional nondiscrimination policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of enumerated, protected classes, which are commonly found at most universities. Writing for the majority, Justice Ginsburg emphasized that [t]his opinion, therefore, considers only whether conditioning access to a student organization forum on compliance with an all-comers policy is permissible and does not address a written nondiscrimination policy that protects specific, enumerated classes. 76 Justice Ginsburg emphasized that the policy under review was one requiring all student groups to accept all comers. 77 Instead, in Martinez, four Supreme Court justices explicitly determined that a nondiscrimination policy cannot be constitutionally applied to religious groups choice of leaders and members. 78 These justices explained that such an application of a nondiscrimination policy would be unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. Justice Stevens, who retired the day Martinez was announced, was the only justice who expressed the view that a written nondiscrimination policy could be constitutionally applied to religious student groups selection of leaders, in a concurrence that began by observing that the Court confines its discussion to the narrow issue of the all-comers policy. 79 In his concurrence, Justice Kennedy emphasized that the decision was only concerned with an all-comers policy. 80 As explained in more detail below, Martinez also makes clear that an all-comers policy is unconstitutional if it is not applied uniformly to every student group on campus. 81 An allcomers policy must be applied to all student groups membership and leadership criteria. The Martinez decision requires no change in any college s policy. The decision merely permitted a law school the discretion to adopt a novel policy, the wisdom of which has 75 Id. at The Court remanded the case on that issue. 76 Id. at 2984 (emphasis added). 77 Id. at 2993 (original emphasis). See Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 648 F.3d 790, 795 (9th Cir. 2011), citing Martinez, 130 S.Ct. at 2982, 2984 (the Supreme Court in Martinez expressly declined to address whether [its] holdings would extend to a narrower nondiscrimination policy that, instead of prohibiting all membership restrictions, prohibited membership restrictions only on certain specified bases, for example, race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation ); see also, Id. at 805 (Ripple, J., concurring) ( this case is not controlled by the majority opinion in Christian Legal Society ; the Supreme Court explicitly reserved the issue in Martinez) S.Ct. at (2010) (Alito, J., dissenting, joined by Roberts, C.J., Scalia, J., and Thomas, J.). 79 Id. at 2995 (Stevens, J., concurring). 80 Id. at 2999 (Kennedy, J., concurring) S.Ct. at 2995 (remanding to determine whether Hastings selectively enforces its all-comers policy ).

206 196 Peaceful Coexistence Report been widely questioned. The majority noted that the advisability of Hastings policy does not control its permissibility. 82 For instance, the fact that Hastings was a law school, as opposed to a university, meant that Hastings need not consider the effect of its all-comers policy on the wide array of groups that most universities have on campus, particularly fraternities and sororities. 83 Misuse of a nondiscrimination policy to prohibit religious groups religious leadership criteria creates viewpoint discrimination. In Martinez, four Supreme Court justices would have found that a nondiscrimination policy cannot be constitutionally applied to religious groups choice of leaders and members. 84 These justices explained that such an application of a nondiscrimination policy would be unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. To prohibit religious groups from adopting criteria for leaders related to the goals of the organization and purposes of the activities, while allowing other student groups to do so, is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and violates the students free speech rights. Essentially, the University violates its own nondiscrimination policy if it prohibits religious student organizations from having leadership requirements that reflect their religious viewpoints, while it allows nonreligious student groups to have leadership requirements that reflect their nonreligious viewpoints. Just as the Democratic Students Association wants its leaders to agree with the Democratic Party s platform, and the Animal Rights Club wants its leaders to commit to veganism, many religious groups believe that it is essential for expression of their religious identities that their officers agree with their religious beliefs. In other words, the right of religious groups to be religious depends on their ability to have leaders who are committed to their religious beliefs. The Seventh Circuit held that a university s application of a nondiscrimination policy to a religious student group was unconstitutional, stating it had no difficulty concluding that [a university s] application of its nondiscrimination policies in this way burdens CLS's ability to express its ideas. 85 The Second Circuit held that the Equal Access Act requires a public secondary school to recognize a religious student group despite its religious leadership criteria. 86 In so holding, the Second Circuit relied heavily on First Amendment precedent to reach its conclusion. The Ninth Circuit reached a different result and allowed application of a nondiscrimination policy to religious groups; however, the panel believed it was bound by a 82 Id. at An all-comers policy s inherent incompatibility with fraternities and sororities is discussed infra at Part IV.B. 84 Id. at (2010) (Alito, J., dissenting, joined by Roberts, C.J., Scalia, J., and Thomas, J.). 85 Christian Legal Society v. Walker, 453 F.3d 853, 863 (7th Cir. 2006). 86 Hsu v. Roslyn Union Free Sch. Dist., 85 F.3d 839 (2d Cir. 1996).

207 Panelists Written Statements 197 prior Ninth Circuit decision. 87 It remanded the case for a determination whether the policy had been uniformly applied to all groups. In perhaps the most cogent legal analysis of the reason nondiscrimination policies, when misused, impose a particular burden on religious student groups, Seventh Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple explained that nonreligious groups can redefine themselves to form around shared values, but religious groups cannot do this because their shared values are religious values, which some administrators will mislabel as religious discrimination. 88 An All-comers Policy Is Unworkable and Undermines Nondiscrimination Values. An all-comers policy may be applied to religious groups only if the University applies the policy to all groups without exception. There are numerous reasons why an all-comers policy is bad policy and unworkable. As Martinez itself explains, the advisability of Hastings policy does not control its permissibility. 89 The Court held that it was not enough for a university to adopt an all-comers policy: a university must actually apply the policy uniformly, without exception, to all student groups. 90 Martinez is unequivocal that if a University allows any exemption to its all-comers policy, it cannot deny an exemption to a religious group. 91 Indeed, the Court remanded the Martinez case for further consideration of whether the all-comers policy had been uniformly or selectively enforce[d]. 92 Justice Ginsburg emphasized that the policy under review was one requiring all student groups to accept all comers. 93 Therefore, even if a university were to adopt an all-comers policy, it could not deny a religious group an exemption for religious leadership requirements if the university allowed any exemption to its policy. 94 As the Court has long ruled, the government cannot deny religious groups an exemption for certain conduct while granting nonreligious groups an exemption for similar conduct. [I]n circumstances in which individualized exemptions from a general requirement are available, the government may not refuse to extend that system to 87 Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 648 F.3d 790 (9th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 132 S.Ct (2012). 88 Id. at (Ripple, J., concurring). Judge Ripple s reasoning is quoted at length supra at pp S.Ct. at Id. at Id. at 2995; id. at 2999 (Kennedy, J., concurring). 92 Id. at Id. at 2993 (original emphasis). 94 Id. at 2993.

208 198 Peaceful Coexistence Report cases of religious hardship without compelling reason. 95 Such a discrepancy triggers strict scrutiny of the government s denial of the exemption to the religious group. 96 Of course, this is precisely why all-comers policies are rare: they must be applied without exception to all student groups. In Martinez itself, the Court hardly endorsed an all-comers policy when it observed that the advisability of Hastings policy does not control its permissibility. 97 Single-sex sororities and fraternities, a cappella groups, and intramural sports teams are incompatible with an all-comers policy. The Martinez facts were unusual, not only because of the unique all-comers policy, but also because the school at issue was a stand-alone law school and not a major university. The law school did not need to weigh the impact of an all-comers policy on single-sex sororities and fraternities, a cappella groups, and club sports teams. If an all-comers policy were implemented, the University would have to abandon its current exemption for fraternities and sororities to select members according to sex. Besides ending selection of members and leaders on the basis of sex, an all-comers policy would require fraternities and sororities to adopt a first-come, first-pledge selection process because all groups must be open to all students. The Greek system is the antithesis of an all-comers policy, based as it is on selection of members through the highly subjective rush system. Colleges frequently invoke Title IX s exemption for fraternities and sororities, but that response is a red herring. Title IX gives fraternities and sororities an exemption only from Title IX itself, which prohibits sex discrimination in higher education. 98 It does not give fraternities and sororities a blanket exemption from all nondiscrimination laws or policies, including a university s own nondiscrimination policy or an all-comers policy. An all-comers policy undermines the very protection for minority groups that nondiscrimination policies are intended to provide. In a remarkably candid PBS interview, the acting dean of the law school in Martinez admitted that its all-comers policy required an African-American student group to admit white 95 Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 537 (1993), quoting Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 884 (1990). 96 [A] law cannot be regarded as protecting an interest of the highest order when it leaves appreciable damage to that supposedly vital interest unprohibited. Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418, 433 (2006), quoting Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 547 (1993) (quotation marks and ellipses omitted) S.Ct. at 2992 (original emphasis) U.S.C (2013).

209 Panelists Written Statements 199 supremacists as members. 99 At oral argument, its counsel conceded that an all-comers policy would allow exclusion of Orthodox Jewish groups or Muslim groups, if their traditional practices were deemed to be discriminatory. 100 Thus, the groups most likely to be harmed by an all-comers policy are the very groups - minority racial, ethnic, or religious groups - that a conventional nondiscrimination policy is intended to protect. An all-comers policy eviscerates all university students First Amendment rights. An all-comers policy erases all student groups freedom of expression to require their leaders to agree with their specific goals, values, and speech, a right that most students would wish to preserve. The ability of groups to form around a specific goal and mission has fueled most great reform movements and is necessary in order to maintain genuine pluralism and diversity on campus. 101 An all-comers policy compounds university administrators administrative difficulties. Under an all-comers policy, a university must police the rationale for all decisions made by every student group regarding membership and leadership, rather than limiting its concern only to decisions that might violate the limited protected categories in a nondiscrimination policy. Dissatisfied students could challenge every election outcome on the basis that their beliefs were improperly considered by the other students who voted. A student who denies global warming could force the Sierra Club to defend itself in administrative proceedings to determine whether his or her beliefs were improperly considered by the group in denying the student s bid for its presidency. In regard to religious groups, the administrative difficulties are particularly troubling. University administrators will need to examine religious groups religious practices to respond to any claim that a religious group s traditional practices are discriminatory. Examining religious groups doctrine, however, is not within the province of government officials. 102 Determining that some religious groups doctrines are discriminatory, but other religious groups doctrines are not, strikes at the Establishment Clause s core requirement that the State 99 Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (PBS television broadcast) (Apr. 16, 2010), (last visited March 8, 2013) Tr. of Oral Arg. 44, available at (last visited March 8, 2013). 101 See, e.g., Adam Goldstein, Supreme Court s CLS Decision Sucker-Punches First Amendment, The Huffington Post (June 29, 2010) at (last visited March 8, 2013). 102 Thomas v. Review Board, 450 U.S. 707 (1981).

210 200 Peaceful Coexistence Report not favor some religious beliefs over other religious beliefs. 103 To save its policy, Hastings counsel claimed that groups might impose tests on membership and, therefore, a religious group could require applicants to pass a Bible test but only [i]f it were truly an objective knowledge test. 104 A policy that envisions university officials determining whether a religious group s knowledge test is objective or subjective is a constitutional quagmire. An all-comers policy exposes the University to lawsuits because consistent enforcement is nearly impossible. Any student can insist that the University review his or her exclusion from any group for any reason, with a lawsuit dangling over each administrative review. Indeed, Martinez places the burden on university administrators to ensure that the policy is not used by students to change the message or mission of any group. 105 The Court provided no practical guidance for administrators as to how to carry out a task that seems inherently to contradict the basic concept of an all-comers policy. Even as a limited decision, Martinez is incompatible with the Supreme Court s traditional First Amendment jurisprudence. Martinez s departure is so sharp, and its analysis so superficial, that its viability seems doubtful, even on the very narrow issue that it decided. Whether or not Martinez was correctly decided has no bearing on whether nondiscrimination policies and religious liberty are compatible. Yet, it is worth noting that the Martinez majority opinion has been criticized on a number of grounds. 106 In fundamental ways, the opinion departed from forty-years of 103 Larson v. Valente, 456 U.S. 228 (1982). 104 Tr. of Oral Arg. 52, available at (last visited March 8, 2013) S.Ct. at 3000 (Kennedy, J., concurring) (observing that a group would have a substantial case on the merits if it were shown that the all-comers policy was either designed or used to infiltrate the group or challenge its leadership in order to stifle its views ). 106 See, e.g., John D. Inazu, Justice Ginsburg and Religious Liberty, 63 Hastings L.J. 1213, (2012); John D. Inazu, Liberty s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly 5-6, (Yale University Press 2012); Richard W. Garnett, Religious Freedom and the Nondiscrimination Norm, ch. 4 in Austin Sarat, Legal Responses to Religious Practices in the United States: Accommodation and Its Limits 194, , (Cambridge University Press 2012); Douglas Laycock, Sex, Atheism, and the Free Exercise of Religion, 88 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 407, (2011); Michael W. McConnell, Freedom by Association, First Things, Aug-Sep2012, at available at (last visited March 8, 2013); Mary Ann Glendon, The Harold J. Berman Lecture Religious Freedom - A Second-Class Right?, 61 Emory L.J. 971, 978 (2012); Richard Epstein, Church and State at the Crossroads: Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 2010 Cato Sup. Ct. Rev. 105 (2010); William E. Thro & Charles J. Russo, A Serious Setback for Freedom: The Implications of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 261 Ed. Law Rep. 473 (2010); Carl H. Esbeck, Defining Religion Down: Hosanna-Tabor, Martinez, and the U.S. Supreme Court, 11 First Amendment Law Review 1 (2012); Note, Freedom of Expressive Association, 124 Harv. L. Rev. 249 (2010).

211 Panelists Written Statements 201 Supreme Court precedent protecting student groups free speech and expressive association rights on campus. 107 The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that universities do not endorse student groups and their beliefs when they recognize them: recognition is not endorsement. As the Supreme Court remarked in Healy v. James, state colleges and universities are not enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Amendment. 108 For nearly forty years before the Martinez decision - since Healy - it has been universally recognized that group rights of freedom of speech and association extend to student groups operating on state university campuses. The Martinez decision deeply conflicts with the Court s landmark decisions in Healy and in Widmar v. Vincent. 109 Both those cases held that campus student groups possess an affirmative freedom of speech and expressive association to meet on state university campuses, without restriction based on officials disapproval of the nature of their associations or identities. Healy involved a political group s associational freedom, while Widmar involved a religious group s religious speech and identity. In each situation, campus officials had argued that they possessed the authority to exclude such groups from recognition because of the nature and content of the groups expressive identity. And in each case, the Court rejected the college administrators arguments. 110 Healy specifically rejected a state university s claimed authority to deny a student political group, Students for a Democratic Society ( SDS ), recognition because of its associational identity: Among the rights protected by the First Amendment is the right of individuals to associate to further their personal beliefs. Accordingly, denial of official recognition, without justification, to college organizations burdens or abridges that associational right. 111 The Court held that a state university may not restrict speech or association of campus student groups simply because it considered a particular group s views, identity, or affiliations to be undesirable as a policy matter - indeed, even if it thought a group s positions abhorrent Adam Goldstein, Supreme Court s CLS Decision Sucker-Punches First Amendment (June 29, 2010), available at (last visited March 6, 2013). An attorney with the Student Press Law Center, Mr. Goldstein stated that the rationale of this opinion could end up doing more violence to student expression rights than any decision in the last 22 years. Id U.S. 169, 180 (1972) U.S. 263 (1981). 110 Healy and Widmar of course stand in the midst of a long line of Supreme Court cases recognizing a broad right of expressive association. See Michael Stokes Paulsen, Scouts, Families, and Schools, 85 Minn. L. Rev. 1917, (2001) (collecting and discussing cases). 111 Id. 112 Id. at (emphasis added).

212 202 Peaceful Coexistence Report In Widmar, the Court extended Healy s recognition of campus groups freedom of speech and association to religious groups: With respect to persons entitled to be there, our cases leave no doubt that the First Amendment rights of speech and association extend to the campuses of state universities. 113 Because students enjoy First Amendment rights of speech and association on the campus, denial of recognition and use of facilities to student groups, on the basis of their religious mission and identity, must be subjected to the level of scrutiny appropriate to any form of prior restraint. 114 The Martinez majority attempted to distinguish Healy and Widmar by treating them as cases where the student groups had been unconstitutionally singled out for different treatment. 115 Ostensibly, there was no general right of campus student groups to freedom of expressive association. But such a distinction is utterly alien to the opinions in Healy and Widmar themselves which spoke clearly of students possessing group rights of speech and association, on campus, simply because they were entitled to be there. 116 But there is an even more dramatic conflict between Martinez, on one hand, and Healy and Widmar, on the other. Fundamentally, the central premise of Martinez is entirely irreconcilable with the central premise of Healy and Widmar, as well as the underlying premise of Good News Club, Rosenberger, Lamb s Chapel and Mergens. 117 Inexplicably, the Martinez majority began with the mistaken premise that permitting a student group access to a limited forum was subvention or state subsidy of the group s expression. 118 But Martinez s starting point simply cannot be squared with four decades of caselaw protecting student groups free speech and expressive association. If access to a speech forum is a state subsidy of the group s purposes or identity, then Healy, Widmar, Lamb s Chapel, Rosenberger, Mergens, and Good News Club were all wrongly decided. If a student group s access to meeting space is a state subsidy, then Central Connecticut State College had every right to refuse to subsidize the SDS s advocacy of violence in Healy. And the school officials in Widmar, Lamb s Chapel, Rosenberger, Mergens, and Good News Club were absolutely correct that access for religious groups was the equivalent of government subsidy of religious speech in violation of the Establishment Clause. But the Court held the exact opposite each time U.S. at (emphasis added). 114 Id. at 267 n.5 (citing Healy) S.Ct. at Widmar, 454 U.S. at (emphasis added). Accord Healy, 408 U.S. at , Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001); Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995); Lamb s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free Sch. Dist., 508 U.S. 384 (1993); Board of Educ. v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990). See also, Capitol Square Rev. & Advisory Bd. v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753 (1995); Fowler v. Rhode Island, 345 U.S. 67 (1953); Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268 (1951) S.Ct. at 2978, 2986.

213 Panelists Written Statements 203 Martinez s basic construct - that student groups access to classroom space and campus communication channels is a government subsidy - is a radical departure from Healy, Rosenberger, Widmar, Lamb s Chapel, Mergens, and Good News Club. In Rosenberger, the Court stressed that it did not suggest in Widmar, that viewpoint-based restrictions are proper when the University does not itself speak or subsidize transmittal of a message it favors but instead expends funds to encourage a diversity of views from private speakers. 119 As the Court held, access to meeting space, channels of communication, and student activity fee funds was not a government subsidy of the religious student group s private speech. For that reason, the Establishment Clause was not violated by a religious group s access to meeting space, channels of communication, or student activity fee funding. 120 The Court made this point itself in Rosenberger: If the expenditure of governmental funds is prohibited whenever those funds pay for a service that is, pursuant to a religion-neutral program, used by a group for sectarian purposes, then Widmar, Mergens, and Lamb s Chapel would have to be overruled. 121 A troubling aberration, Martinez s treatment of students associational rights conflicts with long-established precedent establishing the First Amendment principle that students at state universities possess group rights of expression and association, simply by virtue of being entitled to be there as students. The government cannot justify its denial of one group s expressive association rights by wiping out all groups expressive association rights. The decision in Martinez also rested on the mistaken premise that a state university might uniformly provide that all campus groups be denied rights of expressive association traditionally enjoyed by private expressive groups, as an aspect of the university s restrictions on its limited public forum. The religious student group s right to choose its leaders and members could be denied because, and only because, all other student groups right to choose their leaders and members were denied. But the First Amendment usually cannot be evaded so easily. For example, a religious speaker challenged Los Angeles International Airport s policy that banned all First Amendment activity in the airport. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled for the religious speaker because no conceivable governmental interest would justify such an absolute prohibition of speech. 122 For the same reason, an all-comers policy that bans all student U.S. at Id. at Id. at Board of Airport Commissioners of City of Los Angeles v. Jews for Jesus, Inc., 482 U.S. 569, 575 (1987).

214 204 Peaceful Coexistence Report groups from exercising their rights of speech and expressive association should have been a per se violation of the First Amendment. Healy and Widmar again demonstrate the incorrectness of the Martinez decision. If Martinez is correct, all the campus officials in Healy needed to do to keep the SDS off campus was to adopt a uniform policy restricting all campus student groups freedom of expressive association. Under Martinez - quite contrary to Healy - a state university apparently may restrict speech and association and does have power to burden the associational right of student groups to associate to further their personal beliefs, even though Healy holds the diametrical opposite. 123 All the university need do is impose neutral across-the-board restrictions on all groups expressive association. Likewise, all that the campus officials in Widmar needed to do in order to suppress students religious meetings was to adopt a uniform policy forbidding all student groups from having any ideologically distinctive identity. Under Martinez - quite contrary to Widmar - students enjoy First Amendment rights of speech and association on the campus only to the extent state university officials choose to define their limited forum in such a way as to allow such rights, which contradicts both Healy and Widmar. 124 The Court s more recent decision in Hosanna-Tabor rejected the basic free exercise analysis upon which Martinez relied. The Court s decision in Hosanna-Tabor casts serious doubt on the correctness of Martinez s treatment of the free exercise claim. The majority believed that Employment Division v. Smith 125 forecloses a religious student group s free exercise claim that a state university may not penalize a religious group for requiring its leaders to agree with its religious beliefs. 126 In Hosanna-Tabor, however, the Court unanimously distinguished a church s selection of its ministers from Smith, which it characterized as involv[ing] government regulation of only outward physical acts. 127 A state university s use of its nondiscrimination policy to penalize a religious student group for insisting its leaders agree with its religious beliefs seems much closer to the government interference with an internal church decision that affects the faith and mission of the church itself, found unconstitutional in Hosanna-Tabor, than to government regulation of an individual s ingestion of peyote, permitted in Smith. This is U.S. at U.S. at & n U.S. 872 (1990) S.Ct. at 2995 n.27, 2993 n S.Ct. at 707.

215 Panelists Written Statements 205 particularly true given that the Free Exercise Clause provides special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations. 128 Indeed, even without Hosanna-Tabor s analysis, Martinez s was incorrect to claim that Smith governed. Even under the Smith analysis, the government may not regulate, or discriminate against, the exercise of First Amendment rights of expression and association, on the basis of the religious nature of such expression or association. The minimum content of the Free Exercise Clause is that government must not discriminate against religion specifically and regulate conduct specifically because of its religious nature or the religious identity of the person or persons engaged in it. 129 To exclude religious groups from campus because their leadership criteria are religious is discrimination on the basis of religion in violation of Smith and Lukumi. Conclusion Religious liberty scholar, Professor Douglas Laycock, recently warned: For the first time in nearly 300 years, important forces in American society are questioning the free exercise of religion in principle - suggesting that free exercise of religion may be a bad idea, or at least, a right to be minimized. 130 He posits that the deep disagreements over sexual morality... have generated a much more pervasive hostility to certain kinds of religion, and this hostility has consequences. 131 He counsels against taking a path [that] causes the very kinds of human suffering that religious liberty is designed to avoid, a path leading to a society in which religious persons who cannot change their mind [about a moral issue] are sued, fined, forced to violate their conscience, and excluded from occupations if they refuse. 132 Religious liberty is among America s most distinctive contributions to humankind. But it is fragile, too easily taken for granted and too often neglected. Misuse of university nondiscrimination policies poses a serious threat to religious liberty and pluralism - a threat easily avoided if nondiscrimination policies are once again given a common sense 128 Id Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 546 (1993); Smith, 494 U.S. at 877; McDaniel v. Paty, 435 U.S. 618 (1978). 130 Douglas Laycock, Sex, Atheism, and the Free Exercise of Religion, 88 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 407, 407 (2011). Other religious liberty scholars are sounding a similar alarm. See, e.g., Daniel O. Conkle, Religious Truth, Pluralism, and Secularization: The Shaking Foundations of American Religious Liberty, 32 Cardozo L. Rev. 1755, 1780 (2011) ( I fear that religious liberty, understood as a distinctive and precious human right, our first freedom, might become a relic of the past - perhaps a cherished relic, but one that no longer commands a contemporary commitment. ); Mary Ann Glendon, The Harold J. Berman Lecture Religious Freedom - A Second- Class Right?, 61 Emory L.J. 971 (2012). 131 Laycock, supra n. 130, at Id. at 419.

216 206 Peaceful Coexistence Report interpretation that protects religious student groups, rather than penalizing them for choosing leaders who agree with their religious beliefs.

217 Panelists Written Statements 207 Attachment A

218 208 Peaceful Coexistence Report Attachment B

219 Panelists Written Statements 209 Attachment C

220 210 Peaceful Coexistence Report Attachment C

221 Panelists Written Statements 211 Attachment C

222 212 Peaceful Coexistence Report Attachment C